Practical Prescribed-Time Trajectory Tracking Consensus for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems via an Event-Triggered Mechanism

Cai, Hui; Li, Yandong; Yang, Dan; Huang, Yuyi; Guo, Yuan

doi:10.3390/act14120574

This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.

Open AccessArticle

Practical Prescribed-Time Trajectory Tracking Consensus for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems via an Event-Triggered Mechanism

by

Hui Cai

^1,2

,

Yandong Li

^1,2,*

,

Dan Yang

^3,*

,

Yuyi Huang

^1,2

and

Yuan Guo

⁴

¹

College of Computer and Control Engineering, Qiqihar University, Qiqihar 161000, China

²

Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Big Data Network Security Detection and Analysis, Qiqihar University, Qiqihar 161000, China

³

College of Information Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China

⁴

Computer and Big Data College, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 161006, China

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Actuators 2025, 14(12), 574; https://doi.org/10.3390/act14120574

Submission received: 19 September 2025 / Revised: 26 October 2025 / Accepted: 21 November 2025 / Published: 26 November 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis and Design of Linear/Nonlinear Control System—2nd Edition)

Download Versions Notes

Abstract

This paper investigates the problem of practical prescribed-time trajectory tracking consensus for higher-order heterogeneous multi-agent systems (MASs) with unknown time-varying control gains and non-vanishing uncertainties, while also taking external disturbances into account. A directed graph is employed to characterize the communication topology. By introducing a time-varying scaling function and adopting an adaptive backstepping design, a distributed controller is developed that achieves practical prescribed-time trajectory tracking consensus of heterogeneous MASs, while avoiding unbounded control gains and preserving the continuity of control inputs. Furthermore, to optimize the use of communication resources, an event-triggered mechanism is incorporated to reduce the update frequency of controllers. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: heterogeneous multi-agent systems; practical prescribed time; trajectory tracking consensus; event-triggered mechanism; adaptive control

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Cai, H.; Li, Y.; Yang, D.; Huang, Y.; Guo, Y. Practical Prescribed-Time Trajectory Tracking Consensus for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems via an Event-Triggered Mechanism. Actuators 2025, 14, 574. https://doi.org/10.3390/act14120574

AMA Style

Cai H, Li Y, Yang D, Huang Y, Guo Y. Practical Prescribed-Time Trajectory Tracking Consensus for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems via an Event-Triggered Mechanism. Actuators. 2025; 14(12):574. https://doi.org/10.3390/act14120574

Chicago/Turabian Style

Cai, Hui, Yandong Li, Dan Yang, Yuyi Huang, and Yuan Guo. 2025. "Practical Prescribed-Time Trajectory Tracking Consensus for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems via an Event-Triggered Mechanism" Actuators 14, no. 12: 574. https://doi.org/10.3390/act14120574

APA Style

Cai, H., Li, Y., Yang, D., Huang, Y., & Guo, Y. (2025). Practical Prescribed-Time Trajectory Tracking Consensus for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems via an Event-Triggered Mechanism. Actuators, 14(12), 574. https://doi.org/10.3390/act14120574

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Article metric data becomes available approximately 24 hours after publication online.

Article Menu

Practical Prescribed-Time Trajectory Tracking Consensus for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems via an Event-Triggered Mechanism

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI