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Ding et al. Complex Eng Syst 2023;3:7 Complex Engineering
DOI: 10.20517/ces.2023.06 Systems

Research Article Open Access

Secure consensus control for multi-agent systems un-
der communication constraints via adaptive sliding
mode technique

Meng Ding, Bei Chen
The School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620, China.

Correspondence to: Dr. Bei Chen, the School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science,
Shanghai 201620, China. E-mail: chenbei1631@163.com
How to cite this article: Ding M, Chen B. Secure consensus control for multi-agent systems under communication constraints via
adaptive sliding mode technique. Complex Eng Syst 2023;3:xx. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ces.2023.06

Received: 20 Feb 2023 First Decision: 13 Mar 2023 Revised: 8 Apr 2023 Accepted: 15 Apr 2023 Published: 17 May 2023
Academic Editor: Hamid Reza Karimi Copy Editor: Fanglin Lan Production Editor: Fanglin Lan

Abstract
The consensus tracking problem is investigated for a class of multi-agent systems (MASs) under communication
constraints. In particular, as a result of the impact of amplitude attenuation and random interference, communication
among followers may inevitably suffer from the fading phenomenon. Meanwhile, the controllers may also be subject
to malicious deception attacks, which will disrupt the correct operation of the MASs. Thus, the agents can only
update their states based on fading information exchanged with their neighbors and the false control input under
attacks. The consensus tracking error variables are first designed via the fading signal received from neighbors. Then,
an online estimation strategy is introduced to estimate the unknown attacks, based on which the adaptive sliding
mode controller is designed to attenuate the effect of the time-varying attacks on MASs. Convergence analysis of
the MASs under the designed control strategy is provided by using the Lyapunov stability theory and adaptive sliding
mode control method. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical results is verified via numerical simulations.

Keywords: Multi-agent systems, consensus tracking, adaptive mechanism, sliding mode control, deception attacks,
channel fading

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, shar-
ing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you
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