Purpose- This paper aims to investigate time-varying finite-time formation tracking control problem for multiple unmanned aerial vehicle (multi-UAV) systems under switching topologies, where the states of the UAVs need to form a desired time-varying formations while tracking the trajectory of the virtual leader in finite time under jointly connected topologies.
Design/Methodology/Approach- A consensus-based formation control protocol is constructed to achieve the desired formation. In this paper, the time-varying formation is specified by a piecewise continuously differentiable vector, while the finite-time convergence is guaranteed by utilizing a nonlinear function. Based on graph theory, the finite time stability of the close-loop system with the proposed control protocol under jointly connected topologies is proven by applying LaSalle’s invariance principle and the theory of homogeneity with dilation.
Findings- The effectiveness of the proposed protocol is verified by numerical simulations. Consequently, the proposed protocol can successfully achieve the predefined time-varying formation in finite time under jointly connected topologies while tracking the trajectory generated by the leader.
Originality/value- This paper proposes a solution to simultaneously solve the control problems of time-varying formation tracking, finite-time convergence, and switching topologies.