PID Containment Control for Multi-Agent Systems With Multi-Rate Measurements Under Sensor Resolution Constraints

Abstract

This article investigates the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) containment control problem for a class of linear MAS with multirate measurements under the constraint of sensor resolution. The sensors of agents are classified into two distinct groups, characterized by their relatively fast and slow sampling periods. The concept of sensor resolution is introduced to quantify the ability of sensors to detect the smallest changes in information. A PID controller with an improved structure is proposed to achieve containment control, ensuring that follower agents remain within the convex hull formed by the leader agents. The closed-loop system is reformulated into a simplified representation, incorporating both sampling characteristics and communication topology. Sufficient conditions are then derived to guarantee the exponentially ultimate boundedness of the tracking error. Based on these conditions, an iterative algorithm is developed for computing the required controller gains. Finally, a simulation study, along with comparative analyses, is conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.