Maneuvering Multiple Hypersonic Flight Vehicles via a Hierarchical Control Framework

This article studies how to maneuver multiple hypersonic flight vehicles (HFVs) with desired collective forms. To this end, a hierarchical control framework utilizing the leader-follower strategy is proposed, where the knowledge of time-varying target formation is not required for the followers. First, different from the real-weighted position constraints, the proposed matrix-weighted position constraint requires fewer neighbors and less communication. Second, compared to most existing formation maneuver control methods, our method can change not only the rotation, scaling, and translation of multi-HFV formations but also a greater variety of formation shapes. Third, unlike the conventional strategies in which the altitudes and forward positions of the HFVs are controlled separately, the proposed method can control both altitudes and forward positions of the HFVs simultaneously. A remarkable advantage is its ability to achieve precise position control for each HFV. Finally, two numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.