Distributed formation flight control of multi-UAV system with nonuniform time-delays and jointly connected topologies

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate formation control problem of multi-UAV system with nonuniform time-delays and jointly-connected topologies. No explicit leader exists in the formation team, and therefore a consensus-based distributed formation control protocol which requires only the local neighbor-to-neighbor information between UAVs is proposed for the system. The stability analysis of the proposed formation control protocol is also performed. The research suggests that when the time-delay, communication topology and control protocol satisfy the stability condition, the formation control protocol will guide the multi-UAV system asymptotically converge to the desired velocity and shape the expected formation team, respectively. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the formation control system.

Keywords

Formation control jointly connected topologies multi-UAV system nonuniform time-delays consensus protocol

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