Prescribed-track output containment of heterogeneous multi-agent systems over clustered networks with hybrid communication

This paper investigates a prescribed-track output containment problem of heterogeneous multi-agent systems, where the complex communication network consisting of inter-cluster aperiodic intermittent and intra-cluster impulsive signals is described by clustered directed graphs. Firstly, a modified output regulation error for cluster-leaders is designed such that output containment can be achieved in the prescribed track. Secondly, due to the constrained communication channel, convergence rate, and movement track in different scenarios, the distributed fixed-time hybrid control strategy composed of intermittent controller and impulsive controller is designed and independent of the initial values. In addition, the hierarchical tracking framework is constructed to achieve the comprehensive control objective: intra-cluster consensus and inter-cluster containment. Based on our proposed formulation, sufficient conditions for the prescribed-track containment control are derived based on the Lyapunov function method and output regulation technique. Finally, a simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid control strategy.