Affine formation tracking control of unmanned aerial vehicles

• Published in: Frontiers of information technology & electronic engineering Vol. 23; no. 6; pp. 909 - 919
• Main Authors: Li, Huiming, Chen, Hao, Wang, Xiangke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hangzhou Zhejiang University Press 01.06.2022; Springer Nature B.V; College of Intelligence Science and Technology,National University of Defense Technology,Changsha 410073,China
• Subjects: Affine transformations; Communications Engineering; Computer Hardware; Computer Science; Computer Systems Organization and Communication Networks; Constraint modelling; Control theory; Electrical Engineering; Electronics and Microelectronics; Fixed wings; Instrumentation; Networks; Simulation; Tracking control; Tracking problem; Trajectory control; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Multi-agent system; TP273; 多智能体系统; 固定翼无人机; Affine formation; Fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles; 仿射编队
• ISSN: 2095-9184; 2095-9230
• DOI: 10.1631/FITEE.2100109

The affine formation tracking problem for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is considered in this paper, where fixed-wing UAVs are modeled as unicycle-type agents with asymmetrical speed constraints. A group of UAVs are required to generate and track a time-varying target formation obtained by affinely transforming a nominal formation. To handle this problem, a distributed control law based on stress matrix is proposed under the leader-follower control scheme. It is proved, theoretically, that followers can converge to the desired positions and achieve affine transformations while tracking diverse trajectories. Furthermore, a saturated control strategy is proposed to meet the speed constraints of fixed-wing UAVs, and numerical simulations are executed to verify the effectiveness of our proposed affine formation tracking control strategy in improving maneuverability