Leader-Following Formation Control for Discrete-Time Fractional Stochastic Multi-Agent Systems by Event-Triggered Strategy

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript addresses the formation control problem of a multi-agent system through the leader-follower approach. A discrete-time fractional stochastic dynamics is used to describe the system. The event-triggered control strategy is used to achieve the control goal.

Generally, this paper is not written well. The following comments may help the authors to improve their work.

1.     The arguments on the necessity and significance of this work are truly weak. Amidst a number of existing related works, why is this manuscript needed?

2.     Besides, the contributions of this work are claimed that it converses resources and saves bandwidth. These statements are unclear and are not supported by either theoretical analysis or simulation results throughout the paper.

3.     The English should be polished, and grammatical issues should be fixed.  

The English should be polished and grammatical issues should be fixed. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments:

1) In the context of discrete-time fractional stochastic multi-agent systems, the system dynamics involve discrete-time steps, fractional calculus operators capturing non-local dependencies, and stochastic components representing uncertainties or disturbances. However, the authors should focus on the main contribution in the analysis part and make it more clear and consistent to the reader.

2) Section 5 of the paper requires revision and improvement. Additionally, all figure captions need to be updated, providing clear and detailed descriptions of each figure.

3) Clarify Equation (22).

4) What prompted the authors to employ the formation vector

ℎh with these particular values?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

See attachemnt.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

1. It is suggested that the importance and challenges of forming control in multi-agent systems, as well as the motivation for using fractional order dynamics and formation control mechanisms, should be explained in more detail in the introduction to clearly illustrate the innovation points of this paper.

2. Why does x_i (k+1) of Eq.6 in Section 3 give two different formulas and what different meanings do they represent?

3. When describing the method, the meaning and role of each step or formula can be explained in more detail to ensure that the reader can clearly understand the design and implementation process of the research method.

4. In the simulation section of Section 5, it is not explained why the specific experimental design and parameter Settings were chosen, and there is a lack of in-depth explanation and analysis of the simulation results.

5. In the conclusion section, you can further discuss the areas where the proposed system is critical and performs well.

none

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

1.    This reviewer understands that the system model introduced in this paper is somewhat new. However, the crux here is why we need a new model. It is worth noting that something new may not be as good as the old. Comparisons should be given to emphasize the necessity of the proposed system model.

2.    The methodology also remains unclear. Figure 3 is claimed to illustrate the energy-saving features of the proposed method. However, where are the update times considered in the proposed algorithm? It is suspicious that the result shown in Figure 3 is just an accident result. How was it obtained? Will it be repeated if the test scenario changes?

Unfortunately, the above concerns are directly related to the main contributions claimed by the authors. Therefore, I regret that I will not recommend this manuscript for publication. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors addressed all comments. My recommendation is to publish the paper.

Author Response

Many thanks for your reply.

Reviewer 3 Report

Accept in present form

Author Response

Many thanks for your reply.

Round 3

Reviewer 1 Report

No significance can be seen in this work. Comparisons (simulation or experiments) need to be conducted and the results should be presented to emphasize the improved performance if any. Otherwise, I would recommend a final rejection. 

There are grammatical issues and typos. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf