Structure Keeping Control for Heterogeneous Formations Based on Consistency Theory and Graph Theory

This paper studies the formation control problem of heterogeneous formations of UGV/UAVs in the collaborative reconnaissance scenario. It is required that UAVs in the formation keep tracking the UGV and the structure of the heterogeneous formation keep stable. First, the kinematics and dynamics of the UAV and UGV are modeled, and graph theory is introduced to establish a cooperative control model of heterogeneous formation. Then, the overall movement trajectory of the formation is described by the UGV. And based on the distributed observer of the state of UGV, a distributed formation tracking controller is constructed for each UAV. Finally, an experiment on real UGV/UAVs formation is given to verify the effectiveness of the designed controller. Two motion conditions, around 8 and around a circle, are designed. The experimental results show that the control method proposed in this paper can make the UAV swarm perform better when tracking. And compared with other methods, heterogeneous formation can maintain a more stable structure.