Open Access Library Journal

2022, Volume 9, e8342

ISSN Online: 2333-9721
ISSN Print: 2333-9705

LMI-Based Sliding Mode Robust Control for a

Class of Multi-Agent Linear Systems

Tongxing Li, Wenyi Wang, Yongfeng Zhang, Xiaoyu Tan

School of Mathematics and Statistics, Taishan University, Taian, China

How to cite this paper: Li, T.X., Wang, Abstract

W.Y., Zhang, Y.F. and Tan, X.Y. (2022)
LMI-Based Sliding Mode Robust Control This study deals with the multi-agent linear system, which is a more realistic
for a Class of Multi-Agent Linear Systems. and accurate discrete model with disturbance terms. Based on linear matrix
Open Access Library Journal, 9: e8342.
inequality technology and sliding mode control, we give the forward-feedback
https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1108342
control term. Furthermore, sufficient conditions for the closed-loop system
Received: December 30, 2021 are established by Lyapunov stability theory. Results of simulation show that
Accepted: January 18, 2022 the proposed method is effective.
Published: January 21, 2022

Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and Open Subject Areas

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This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0). Keywords
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Linear Matrix Inequality, Multi-Agent Linear System, Asymptotic Stability
Open Access

1. Introduction
Variable structure control (VSC) is essentially a special kind of non-linear con-
trol, the discontinuity of control is a prominent feature of its nonlinearity. The
control strategy of VSC is to force the system to move according to the state tra-
jectory of the predetermined sliding mode according to the current state of the
system in the dynamic process. So VSC is also called sliding mode control
(SMC).
VSC appeared in the 1950s and has been developed and perfected for more
than 50 years. Now it has formed a relatively independent research branch and
become a general design method of automatic control system. It is suitable for
linear and non-linear systems, continuous and discrete systems, deterministic
and uncertain systems, centralized and distributed parameter systems, centra-
lized and decentralized control, etc. And it has been gradually applied in practic-

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1108342 Jan. 21, 2022 1 Open Access Library Journal

 T. X. Li et al.

al engineering, such as motor and power system control, robot control, aircraft
control, satellite attitude control and so on [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. This control me-
thod makes the system state slide along the sliding surface by switching the con-
trol variables, and makes the system invariable when subject to parameter per-
turbation and external disturbance. Because of this characteristic, VSC method
has attracted wide attention of scholars all over the world [6] [7] [8]. Variable
structure systems (VSS) and its main mode of operation SMC are recognized as
one of the most efficient tools to deal with uncertain systems due to their ro-
bustness and even insensitivity to perturbations [9] [10] [11].
In [2] a terminal SMC strategy with projection operator adaptive law is pro-
posed in a hybrid energy storage system (HESS). The controller can be designed
by the constraint condition, combining the projection operator adaptive law.
Linear matrix inequality (LMI) is a powerful design tool in the field of control.
Many control theory and analysis and synthesis problems can be simplified to
corresponding LMI problems, which can be solved by constructing effective com-
puter algorithms. LMI technology has become an effective tool in control engi-
neering, system identification, structural design and other fields. Using LMI
technology to solve some control problems is an important direction in the de-
velopment of control theory. Recently, the problem of LMI-based sliding mode
robust control has received significant attention due to its important applica-
tions [12] [13].
A LMI based sliding surface design method for integral sliding-mode control
of mismatched uncertain systems has been presented in [14]. Moreover, [15] in-
vestigated the chaos control problem for a general class of chaotic systems based
on SMC via LMI. The robust stability of uncertain linear neutral systems with
time-varying discrete and distributed delays is investigated via a descriptor model
transformation and the decomposition technique of the discrete-delay term ma-
trix. In the form of a LMI, they put forward delay-dependent stability criteria in
[4]. A SMC method via LMI was presented in [5], which is used for the flutter
suppression problem in supersonic airflow.
The optimal sampled-data state feedback control for continuous-time Markov
jump linear systems (MJLS) was designed in [16]. Stability and performance ro-
bustness against polytopic uncertainty acting on the system parameters includ-
ing the transition rate matrix are analyzed through differential linear matrix in-
equalities [16].
Based on LMI technology and SMC, we first consider the multi-agent linear
system with disturbance terms to our best knowledge. The main contributions
and primary distinctions of this paper with other works can be given as follows.
1) A more realistic and accurate discrete model with disturbance terms is pro-
posed which is relevant for many practical sampled data systems;
2) New forms for forward-feedback control term and sliding mode robust
term are proposed in this paper;
3) Sufficient conditions for the closed-loop system are established using Lya-
punov stability theory.

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 T. X. Li et al.

The organization of this paper is as follows: Firstly, notations and prelimi-

naries are introduced in Section 2, which are useful throughout this paper. In
Section 3, we give the design of controllers and stability analysis of a multi-agent
system is carried out. Then in Section 4, a simulation is presented to demon-
strate the effectiveness of proposed technique. Finally, the conclusion is made.

2. Systems Definition
Consider the multi-agent linear system:
xi ( t )= Axi ( t ) + Bui ( t ) + di , i= 1, , N (1)

where xi ( t ) ∈ R n , ui ∈ R n are the state and control input of the “ith” agent,
di ∈ R n×1 is disturbance term, A and B ∈ R n×n are constant matrices and the ini-
tial state is defined by xi ( 0 ) . The control targets are xi → xiΥ , for i = 1, , N .
xiY is an ideal instruction.
Assumption 1. This study deals with the information exchange among agents
is modeled by an undirected graph. We assume that the communication topolo-
gy is connected.

3. The Design of Controllers

i (t )
We define the tracking error as z= xi ( t ) − xiΥ ( t ) , then
zi ( t =
) xi ( t ) − xiΥ ( t=) Axi ( t ) + Bui ( t ) + di − xiΥ ( t ) . (2)

Design the tracking error as a sliding mode function, we give the design of con-
trol law as
( t ) Fi ( t ) xi ( t ) + uiΥ ( t ) + uis ( t )
ui = (3)

where Fi ( t ) is a state feedback gain matrix which can be obtained by designing

LMI. Take forward-feedback control item
uiΥ ( t ) =
− Fi ( t ) xiΥ ( t ) − B −1 ( t ) Ai ( t ) xiΥ ( t ) + B −1 ( t ) xiΥ ( t ) , (4)

sliding mode robust term uis = − B −1 ηi sgn ( zi )  , ηi ∈ R n×1 , di j − ηi j < 0 or

di j + ηi j > 0 , and ηi sgn ( zi ) = ηi1 sgnzi1 , ,ηin sgnzin  .
T

Hence,
ui ( t ) = Fi ( t ) xi ( t ) − Fi ( t ) xiΥ ( t ) − B −1 AxiΥ ( t ) + B −1 xiΥ ( t ) − B −1 ηi sgn ( zi ) 
(5)
= Fi ( t ) zi ( t ) − B −1 AxiΥ ( t ) + B −1 xiΥ ( t ) − B −1 ηi sgn ( zi ) 

zi ( t ) = (
Axi ( t ) + B Fi ( t ) zi ( t ) − B −1 AxiΥ ( t ) + B −1 xiΥ ( t ) − B −1 ηi sgn ( zi )  )
+ di − x Υ
(t )
(6)
i

= Axi ( t ) + BFi ( t ) zi ( t ) − AxiΥ ( t ) + xiΥ ( t ) − ηi sgn ( zi )  + di − xiΥ ( t )

= Azi ( t ) + BFi ( t ) zi ( t ) − ηi sgn ( zi )  + di .

The following theorem holds.

Theorem 1. Assume that AT Pi + M iT + Pi A + M i < 0 is true for any
i = 1, , N , where Fi = ( Pi B ) M i . Then the closed-loop system consisting of
−1

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 T. X. Li et al.

(1) and (3) is asymptotic stability.

PROOF. Choose Lyapunov function Vi = ziT Pi zi , where Pi = diag { pij } is a
diagonal matrix and pij > 0 .
Hence,

=Vi ( z P )′ z + z
T
i i i
T
P z
i i i

=( Azi + BFi zi − ηi sgn ( zi ) + di ) Pi zi + ziT Pi ( Azi + BFi zi − ηi sgn ( zi ) + di )

T

= ziT AT Pi zi + ziT Fi T B T Pi zi + ( −η sgn ( zi ) + di ) Pzi + ziT Pi Azi

T
(7)
+ Z P BFi Z i + z P ( −ηi sgn ( zi ) + di )
T
i i
T
i i

( )
< ziT AT Pi + Fi T B T Pi + Pi A + Pi BFi zi =ziT Ωi zi

( −η sgn ( z ) + d )
T
where Ω
= i AT Pi + Fi T B T Pi + Pi A + Pi BFi , i i Pzi < 0 and
z P ( −ηi sgn ( zi ) + di ) < 0 .
T
i i

Remark 1. In order to guarantee that Vi < 0 , Ωi < 0 is a prerequisite. There-

fore,
AT Pi + Fi T B T Pi + Pi A + Pi BFi < 0. (8)

In LMI (8), Fi and Pi are both uncertain. We make linearization of (3), let
,
M i = Pi BFi then LMI (8) becomes as
AT Pi + M iT + Pi A + M i < 0. (9)

Making use of LMI, we can get M i and Pi , thus. Fi = ( Pi B ) M i .

−1

4. Simulation
We focus on the multi-agent linear system in this paper, without loss of general-
ity, we assume that the system has three agents and B is the unit matrix.
According to (1),
1 0 0   −2.4 9.2 0 
=B 0 1= 0  , A  1
 −1 1  , (10)
0 0 1   0 −16.1 3 

the ideal matrix is sin ( t ) cos ( t ) sin ( t )  , the interference matrix is

 50sin ( t )   40sin ( t )   50sin ( t ) 
     
=d1 =50 cos ( t )  , d 2 =40 cos ( t )  , d3 50 cos ( t )  , (11)
 50sin ( t )   40sin ( t )   50sin ( t ) 

corresponding to the ideal matrix. Solving LMI (9), let

10000 0 0 

P1 =  0 10000 0  , (12)
 0 0 10000 

100000 0 0 

P2 =  0 100000 0  , (13)
 0 0 100000 

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 T. X. Li et al.

5000000 0 0 

P3 =  0 5000000 0 , (14)

 0 0 5000000 

we can obtain that

 −37418.0101 −5.1000 0 

F1 = −5.1000 −37419.4101 7.5500 , (15)
 
 0 7.5500 −37423.4101

 −3739.6906 −5.1000 0 

F2 = 7.5500  ,
 −5.1000 −3741.0906 (16)
 0 7.5500 −3745.0906 

 −72.4035 −5.1000 0 
F3 = 
 −5.1000 −73.8035 7.5500  , (17)
 0 7.5500 −77.8035

Figure 1. State tracking and control input for agent 1.

Figure 2. State tracking and control input for agent 2.

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 T. X. Li et al.

Figure 3. State tracking and control input for agent 3.

respectively. Due to (3), let

50   40  50 
=η1 =
50  , η2 = 
 40  , η3
50  ,
  (18)
50   40  50 
replacing switching function with saturation function and choosing the boun-
dary layer as ∆ =0.05 . We give simulations are in the following (Figures 1-3).
It is clear that from three figures the closed-loop system with disturbance is
asymptotic stability, hence, the proposed method is effective.

5. Conclusion
The multi-agent linear system was studied in this paper. Based on linear matrix
inequality technology and sliding mode control, the forward-feedback control
term was given. Sufficient conditions for the closed-loop system were established
by Lyapunov stability theory. Simulations show that the proposed method was
effective.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the associate editor and the reviewers for their
constructive comments and suggestions which improved the quality of the pa-
per.

Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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