Distributed Observer-Based Formation Control for Leader-Follower Multi-UAVs With Collision Avoidance

This work investigates the formation control problem for leader-follower multi-unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs) with obstacle avoidance based on distributed observer. Firstly, with the aid of formation information, a collision avoidance control method is proposed based on an artificial potential function, which ensures collision avoidance for the multi-UAVs as a whole. Subsequently, a novel prescribed-time distributed observer with low data transfer is developed, which is capable of estimating the states of leader UAV without the acceleration boundary of the leader UAV. Then, next by using the prescribed performance control technique to facilitate transform error, a prescribed-time formation control method is constructed to guarantee the collision avoidance among UAVs. The developed control method enables the formated follower UAVs to track the trajectory of the leader UAV within a prescribed-time, and obstacles can be effectively circumvented without disrupting the predefined formation. The efficacy of the proposed scheme is finally demonstrated through the simulation.