Yan, B.Shi, P.Lim, C.C.2022-01-112022-01-112022IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 2022; 19(4):2788-28001545-59551558-3783https://hdl.handle.net/2440/134022Date of Publication: 23 August 2021; date of current version 13 October 2022.In this article, a distributed adaptive event-triggered formation control strategy is proposed for unified nonlinear heterogeneous multiagent systems under uncertainties and disturbances to achieve time-varying formations. To reduce the frequency of data transmission, a distributed dual adaptive observer with an event-triggered strategy is developed to estimate the states of a reference exosystem. Without incurring prior global information about a communication graph, a novel robust formation controller, with dynamic distributed compensators for uncertainties and disturbances, is designed based on an observer result and a nonlinear internal control principle. Finally, both simulation and experiment are conducted for tracking and patrolling formation to verify the effectiveness of the proposed formation control strategy and its robustness.en© 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.Adaptive observer; event-triggered strategy; heterogeneous nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs); robust formation control.Journal article10.1109/TASE.2021.31038772022-01-11583620Yan, B. [0000-0003-3945-3069]Shi, P. [0000-0001-6295-0405] [0000-0001-8218-586X] [0000-0002-0864-552X] [0000-0002-1358-2367] [0000-0002-5312-5435]Lim, C.C. [0000-0002-2463-9760]