Time-varying formation control for heterogeneous multi-agent systems in the presence of actuator faults and deception attacks

This paper explores the control of time-varying formations in a class of heterogeneous multi-agent systems. The key innovation lies in the simultaneous consideration of hybrid actuator faults and deception attacks. To achieve the control objective, a novel distributed double-layer control scheme, comprising a network layer and a physical layer, is proposed. In the network layer, a distributed observer with secure output feedback control is developed to mitigate severe deception attacks, ensuring that the mean square observer error remains within an acceptable range. In the physical layer, fault compensators are designed to address both additive and multiplicative faults. As a result, the followers achieve time-varying formation control, and closed-loop stability analysis is conducted using the Lyapunov method. Finally, to verify the validity of the theoretical findings, numerical simulations are subsequently conducted.