Distance-Based Formation Control for Fixed-Wing UAVs with Input Constraints: A Low Gain Method

Abstract

Due to the nonlinear and asymmetric input constraints of the fixed-wing UAVs, it is a challenging task to design controllers for the fixed-wing UAV formation control. Distance-based formation control does not require global positions as well as the alignment of coordinates, which brings in great convenience for designing a distributed control law. Motivated by the facts mentioned above, in this paper, the problem of distance-based formation of fixed-wing UAVs with input constraints is studied. A low-gain formation controller, which is a generalized gradient controller of the potential function, is proposed. The desired formation can be achieved by the designed controller under the input constraints of the fixed-wing UAVs with proven stability. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the numerical simulation and the semi-physical simulation.