Free-will arbitrary time consensus of heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems

This paper addresses several kinds of free-will arbitrary time (FWAT) consensus problems for heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs). For first-order MASs, both leaderless and leader-following FWAT consensus are studied. Based on the FWAT control technology, some novel distributed control protocols are proposed, under which FWAT consensus of first-order MASs is achieved within the arbitrary pre-specified time and maintained after then. Then, the backstepping method is employed to design the controller for second-order heterogeneous nonlinear MASs. FWAT consensus of second-order MASs can also be guaranteed by using the proposed controller. Finally, simulation examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical analysis.