TY - JOUR AB - Purpose This paper aims to investigate the distributed coordinated fuzzy tracking problems for multiple mechanical systems with nonlinear model uncertainties under a directed communication topology.Design/methodology/approach The dynamic leader case is considered while only a subset of the follower mechanical systems can obtain the leader information. First, this paper approximates the system uncertainties with finite fuzzy rules and proposes a distributed adaptive tracking control scheme. Then, this paper makes a detailed classification of the system uncertainties and uses different fuzzy systems to approximate different kinds of uncertainties. Further, an improved distributed tracking strategy is proposed. Closed-loop systems are investigated using graph theory and Lyapunov theory. Numerical simulations are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.Findings Based on fuzzy control and adaptive control theories, the desired distributed coordinated tracking control strategies for multiple uncertain mechanical systems are developed.Originality/value Compared with most existing literature, the proposed distributed tracking algorithms use fuzzy control and adaptive control techniques to cope with system nonlinear uncertainties of multiple mechanical systems. Moreover, the improved control strategy not only reduces fuzzy rules but also has higher control accuracy. VL - 39 IS - 1 SN - 0144-5154 DO - 10.1108/AA-12-2017-182 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/AA-12-2017-182 AU - Sun Yanchao AU - Chen Liangliang AU - Qin Hongde PY - 2019 Y1 - 2019/01/01 TI - Distributed adaptive fuzzy tracking algorithms for multiple uncertain mechanical systems T2 - Assembly Automation PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 200 EP - 210 Y2 - 2024/03/29 ER -