Distributed consensus for multi‐agent systems via adaptive sliding mode control

Abstract This article considers the consensus of multi‐agent systems (MASs) with external disturbances by using sliding mode control. First, by establishing a novel sliding mode surface and designing a sliding mode control protocol with constant gains, the consensus of MASs with unknown bounded disturbances is studied. Second, based on the barrier function, a new type of adaptive sliding mode switching protocol is proposed, in which the control gains can be chosen randomly and the upper bound of the disturbance does not need to be known in a prior. By using this protocol, the consensus error can converge to any given region of zero in finite time. Moreover, the leaderless consensus and leader‐following tracking problem of MASs with general dynamics and external disturbances are also investigated via extending the proposed adaptive sliding mode protocol. Finally, some examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the control strategies.