Distributed Fuzzy Formation Control of Multi-UAV Systems With Directed Communication Networks

Although numerous distributed control strategies have been developed for formation control of networked multi-UAV systems, they typically rely on the assumption of undirected and connected communication networks. This assumption limits the applicability of control strategies to scenarios with asymmetric information interactions among UAVs. To overcome this limitation, this article addresses the distributed formation control problem of nonlinear multi-UAV systems with unknown uncertainties under general directed communication networks. The approximation capabilities of fuzzy logic systems are leveraged to handle nonlinearities and uncertainties. To conserve limited resources, an event-driven approach is introduced for the design of a distributed formation control strategy. Specifically, the controller of each UAV is updated only when specific events are triggered by a distributed triggering condition, instead of being updated continuously over time. Under intermittent event-driven control updates, all UAVs can achieve a desired time-varying formation configuration, while excluding the Zeno behavior. Adaptive gains, rather than fixed gains, are introduced into the control strategy to enable more flexible control implementation without relying on global information. In addition to formation control, an event-driven attitude control strategy is proposed to ensure that the yaw angles of all UAVs converge to a prescribed value. Finally, simulations are conducted to validate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed control schemes.