Distributed Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Formation Control for Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems With Communication Link Faults

In this article, we investigate the distributed adaptive fault-tolerant formation control problem for a group of heterogeneous multiagent systems consisting of multiple follower unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) with parametric uncertainties and communication link faults. Based on the local states information of the vehicles, the adaptive fault-tolerant formation control protocol with varying control gains is developed for each follower UAV and UGV such that all followers track the dynamic trajectory of the virtual leader and obtain the expected formation configuration simultaneously under the influence of communication link faults and external disturbances. The distributed formation tracking convergence performance is discussed through Lyapunov theory. Finally, a simulation study based on the UAVs–UGVs collaborative systems is provided to show the effectiveness of the developed control strategy.