Dynamics Event-Triggered-Based Time-Varying Bearing Formation Control for UAVs

Abstract

This article addresses the leader-follower formation maneuver control problem of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), taking into account the time-varying velocity and time-varying relative bearing. An event-triggered bearing-based distributed velocity observer was designed, using only the desired position and velocity of the leaders. Furthermore, a dynamic event-triggered mechanism was introduced to reduce continuous communication between UAVs, thus effectively saving communication bandwidth and resources. Building on this, a bearing-only formation maneuver control strategy was proposed, integrating the event-triggered velocity observer with the backstepping control approach. To conclude, numerical simulations have been conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in accomplishing formation maneuver control objectives, including translation, scaling, and rotation control. Furthermore, the advantages of the dynamic event-triggering strategy have been demonstrated through comparative simulations with traditional event-triggering strategies. Additionally, the effectiveness of the proposed observer and controller has been demonstrated by a comprehensive hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation example.