Sliding mode control for formation stabilization of thrust-propelled vehicles with switching topologies and unknown time-varying disturbances

This paper investigates formation problem of multiple thrust-propelled vehicles (TPVs) under switching interaction topologies and communication delays. In the presence of time-varying disturbances, we introduce a controller guaranteeing that all vehicles in a team construct a pre-specified formation from any initial states. To tackle the translational and rotational disturbances, we take advantage of, respectively, the variable structure control and the sliding mode technique. The proposed control scheme can also be used for control of a single TPV. The global stability of the overall system is assured through Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, a numerical simulation is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed control framework.