Robust formation control of multiple PVTOL aircraft with parameter uncertainties

In this work, the formation control problem is investigated for a group of planar vertical take-off and landing (PVTOL) aircraft. By combining the input-output linearization technology and the nonlinear time-varying tool, a distributed sliding-mode formation controller is derived guaranteeing that the multiple PVTOL aircraft come into a desired stationary formation shape with the velocities and the roll angle convergent to zero. The formation errors are showed to be asymptotically convergent to zero. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed formation control algorithm.