Robust cooperative learning control for directed networks with nonlinear dynamics

This paper studies a class of robust cooperative learning control problems for directed networks of agents (a) with nonidentical nonlinear dynamics that do not satisfy a global Lipschitz condition and (b) in the presence of switching topologies, initial state shifts and external disturbances. All uncertainties are not only time-varying but also iteration-varying. It is shown that the relative formation of nonlinear agents achieved via cooperative learning can be guaranteed to converge to the desired formation exponentially fast as the number of iterations increases. A necessary and sufficient condition for exponential convergence of the cooperative learning process is that at each time step, the network topology graph of nonlinear agents can be rendered quasi-strongly connected through switching along the iteration axis. Simulation tests illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed cooperative learning results in refining arbitrary high precision relative formation of nonlinear agents.