Distributed Closed-Form Multi-UAV Formation Control with Event-Triggered Collision Avoidance and Virtual-Structure...

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Control Systems
• Autonomous Systems
• Aerospace Engineering

Background:

• Multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (multi-UAV) systems require robust control for formation flight.
• Cluttered environments pose significant challenges for collision avoidance and trajectory tracking.
• Existing methods often exhibit leader dependency or limitations in handling diverse obstacle geometries.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a distributed, closed-form control strategy for multi-UAV formation flight in cluttered environments.
• To enhance formation precision and reduce leader dependency.
• To ensure safe navigation through effective collision avoidance.

Main Methods:

• A virtual-centroid-based architecture for formation coordination.
• A virtual-centroid navigation strategy for reference trajectory generation.
• A generalized p-norm distance function for collision risk assessment.
• An event-triggered mechanism for generating avoidance vectors.
• Closed-form controllers for 3-DoF dynamic formation control.
• Generalized Lyapunov analysis for safety and convergence guarantees.

Main Results:

• The proposed strategy enables precise geometric configuration with reduced leader dependency.
• Effective collision avoidance is achieved for diverse obstacle geometries.
• Seamless coordination between trajectory tracking and collision avoidance is demonstrated.
• Safety guarantees and asymptotic convergence are established.
• Simulations show trajectory smoothness comparable to artificial potential field (APF) methods.

Conclusions:

• The developed distributed control strategy offers a robust solution for multi-UAV formation flight in complex environments.
• The virtual-centroid approach enhances formation stability and adaptability.
• The method provides a promising foundation for safe and efficient autonomous aerial systems.