Formation Flight Control of Multi-UAV System with Communication Constraints

Three dimensional formation control problem of multi-UAV system with communication constraints of non-uniform time delays and jointly-connected topologies is investigated. 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 the 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 to asymptotically converge to the desired velocity and shape the expected formation team, respectively. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the formation control system.