Adaptive second-order sliding mode control for robust synchronization of multi-agent robotic systems
Fatma Abdelhedi, Achraf Derbel, Nabil Derbel · Results in Control and Optimization · 2026
A robust synchronization of a cooperative multi agent system (MAS) for a motion control purpose presents the main interest of this paper. The studied synchronization is based on the adaptive high order sliding mode control (SMC) combined with the cross coupling concept, in order to guarantee an instantaneous information exchange that enables to synchronize the cooperative multi agent motions and to keep a systematic and consolidated multi agent task. The proposed strategy integrates second-order SMC with a Lyapunov-based adaptive estimation mechanism to simultaneously ensure precise trajectory tracking, high-quality synchronization, and strong robustness against parametric uncertainties. The adaptive law dynamically compensates for uncertain system parameters in real time, while the second-order sliding structure significantly attenuates chattering and improves control smoothness. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through comprehensive simulations on a synchronous multi-agent system composed of three interacting SCARA robotic manipulators under mass uncertainty conditions. Comparative analyses with classical non-adaptive SOSMC demonstrate superior performance in terms of synchronization accuracy, trajectory tracking precision, settling time reduction, disturbance rejection, and smoother control effort.