Distributed robust time-varying formation control for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles systems with time-delay

Abstract

This paper investigates robust control problems of time-varying formation flight for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) systems with the external disturbances and time-delay. Firstly, the nonlinear kinematics and dynamics models of UAV are transformed into a linear time-invariant double-integrator model by employing the feedback linearization method. Then robust time-varying formation control is defined for multiple UAVs systems. Based on state feedback of neighbors, a distributed control protocol is designed. In order to decrease the difficulty of the analysis, the closed-loop dynamics is reduced-order and decoupled. Furthermore, the necessary and sufficient conditions are deduced for multiple UAVs system to achieve robust time-varying formation flight with the desired disturbance attenuation index. Finally, simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results.