Distributed finite-time estimators of reference trajectory states for consensus tracking control of higher-order uncertain nonlinear systems

A class of distributed finite-time estimators of reference trajectory states is proposed for the sake of consensus tracking control systems design. In each agent of the network, a group of distributed and cascaded finite-time estimators is constructed. The estimators estimate the reference trajectory and its higher-order derivatives in a distributed manner by information exchange between the local neighbors on a communication graph containing a spanning tree with the leader node being the root. Only the highest-order derivative estimator is discontinuous, whereas the estimators of the other reference states are continuous. Convergence time of each estimator is analyzed. And simulation results are provided to show the efficacy of the proposed method.