Coordinated path following control for multiple aircrafts in three-dimensional space

This paper studies the coordinated path following problem in three-dimensional space for a family of aircrafts described by dynamic models. With the help of the concepts of orbit function and arc length function, coordinated path following laws are constructed for multiple aircraft systems with directed communication topologies, which guarantee formation flying of the aircrafts along some given plane curves which are simple and closed. By the graph theory and the invariance principle, it is proved that the designed coordinated path following control system is asymptotically stable if the directed topology graph has a globally reachable node. Examples of formation flying of five aircrafts are shown in simulation to illustrate the method.