The distributed formation tracking with preview information is investigated for discrete-time heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems (MASs) over directed communication networks. Firstly, by constructing an augmented system containing virtual regulation output and previewable information, the original problem is converted into a state regulation problem. Secondly, due to the coupling restriction of the eigenvalues of the exosystem matrix and the communication topology matrix, a linear distributed observer is proposed by introducing two extra parameters to realize asymptotic estimation. Using the output information of the observer, the problem was further formulated in the form of feedforward output regulation. Moreover, by solving the output regulation problem, the sufficient conditions are deduced for ensuring the achievement of the formation preview tracking. Meanwhile, numerical simulations show that the distributed design with preview actions has positive effect on the improvement of the transient response.
Keywords: Distributed observer; Feedforward-based output regulation; Formation tracking; MASs; Preview control.
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