Abstract
In this article, the fixed-time formation-containment tracking problem is addressed for heterogeneous multi-agent systems under a directed interaction topology. Agents are divided into a reference leader, providing a trajectory for the entire heterogeneous multi-agent systems; formation-leaders, achieving the desired formation by following this trajectory; and followers. Novel distributed fixed-time observers are developed for the formation-leaders and followers with the directed interaction topology, respectively. Distributed fixed-time control protocols are then proposed for the formation-leaders and followers using the coordinate transformation methods, eliminating the restrictive but commonly adopted full-row rank assumption of agent input matrices. It is shown that under the proposed control protocols, the concerned fixed-time formation-containment tracking problem can be solved. Simulations verify the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.
