Motion synchronization in unmanned aircrafts formation control with communication delays

This paper proposes a formation control strategy for unmanned aircrafts using a virtual structure. Cross coupled sliding mode controllers are introduced to cope with uncertainties in the attitude measurement systems of the unmanned aircrafts and unmeasurable bounded external disturbances such as wind effects, and also to provide motion synchronization in the multi-agent system. This motion synchronization strategy improves the agents convergence to their desired positions, and this is useful for a multi-agent system with faulty agents. er, the proposed motion synchronization strategy is not restricted to specific communication topologies, and sufficient conditions are provided to guarantee the multi-agent system stability in the presence of communication delays. Numerical simulations are presented for a team of five unmanned aircrafts to make a pentagon formation and confirm the accepted performance of the proposed control strategy.