Event-triggered consensus tracking control of flexible manipulators with nonlinear time-varying fault-tolerant actuators and input constraint

This paper introduces a novel event-triggered consensus control strategy for a multi-agent system composed of underactuated flexible manipulators. Most existing research on consensus tracking control assumes that the model targeted is fully actuated, the control signal is continuous, and that both time-varying actuator failures and input constraints are managed separately. These challenges were tackled in this study within the context of multi-agent systems, addressing input constraints and nonlinear time-varying actuator failures simultaneously. Moreover, an event-triggered mechanism is proposed to reduce signal communication. A double closed-loop consensus tracking method is designed based on the multi-agent topology, enabling all flexible manipulators to track the angle and angular velocity of the leader and an adaptive control law is designed to solve actuator faults. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.