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Leader-Follower UAV formation flight control

based on feature modelling

Yafei Chen & Tao Deng

To cite this article: Yafei Chen & Tao Deng (2023) Leader-Follower UAV formation flight control
based on feature modelling, Systems Science & Control Engineering, 11:1, 2268153, DOI:
10.1080/21642583.2023.2268153

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/21642583.2023.2268153

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa

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Group.

Published online: 11 Oct 2023.

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SYSTEMS SCIENCE & CONTROL ENGINEERING: AN OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL
2023, VOL. 11, NO. 1, 2268153
https://doi.org/10.1080/21642583.2023.2268153

Leader-Follower UAV formation flight control based on feature modelling

Yafei Chena and Tao Denga,b,c
a School of Aeronautics, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; b Chongqing Key Laboratory of Green Aviation
Energy and Power, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; c The Green Aerotechnics Research Institute of Chongqing Jiaotong University,
Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

To solve the problems of backstepping error and poor dynamic tracking approach rate in traditional Received 3 July 2023
PID neural network control in UAV formation flight control, a Leader-Follower UAV formation flight Accepted 3 October 2023
control method based on feature modelling is proposed,and the pose relationship model between KEYWORDS
virtual follower and pilot is established by trajectory tracking and pose dynamic fitting. The pose Feature modelling;
distribution of thefollower is analyzed in the ground coordinate system, and the parameter informa- Leader-Follower; drone;
tion of linear velocity and angular velocity control of UAV is obtained, and the backstepping sliding formation flight control;
mode formation controller is formed. The variable structure PID neural network controller is used to pose; buffeting
design the flight control law of UAV formation, and the fast piecewise power approaching factor is
introduced into the PID controller to eliminate the chattering of sliding mode control. The simula-
tion results show that this method can ensure the rapidity of UAV formation flight control also show
strong anti-jamming ability. Due to the fast piecewise power approach rate, the UAVs can complete
the UAV formation reorganization under disturbance and buffeting in a short time, and the trajectory
tracking error approaches zero, and it has good anti-buffeting ability.

1. Introduction
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying formation is used to
perform transportation tasks in complex scenes, such as
plateau transportation, battlefield transportation, moun-
tain transportation, emergency rescue, and disaster relief
transportation, etc., which improves transportation effi-
ciency and effectively meets the accuracy and real-time
of material distribution. With the continuous expansion
and deepening of drone formation applications, it is nec-
essary to establish an optimized flight formation control
model. This model should incorporate the adjustability of
drone flight formations to avoid delays and disturbances
in multi-drone systems during formation transportation,
while ensuring stability and anti-interference capabilities
in drone formation flight control (see for example Li et al.,
2022; Zou et al., 2019; Zou et al., 2020).
In formation control, the Leader-Follower control has
become a popular method due to its simple configu-
ration and high implementation efficiency. In practical
applications, the Leader-Follower scheme requires con-
tinuous updating of feedback state signals and control
commands (Breivik et al., 2008; Duan, 2020). Combined
with a centralized control scheme design for multiple
unmanned aerial systems, it achieves disturbance rejec-
tion control and rigid shape switching for multi-vehicle
formations. In addressing the three-dimensional leader-
follower formation control problem for a group of
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with motion constraints
and disturbances, the authors Liang et al. (2020) trans-
form the original formation error of follower UAVs into
the Frenet-Serret framework. To achieve satisfactory for-
mation error constraint conditions, Yang et al. (2023) pro-
posed a prescribed time performance function based on
time scale transformation function, and combined with
error conversion to improve the transient performance
of formation error. Based on the differential flatness the-
ory, Ai and Yu (2019) proposed an observer-finite-time
controller based on the adaptive disturbance suppres-
sion method to transform the underactuated quadrotor
system into a fully actuated system with four degrees of
freedom and four control inputs and this method effec-
tively solves the control problem of multiple quadrotor
aircraft.
However, accurate acquisition of model parameters is
required for model establishment. When the constraint
conditions are complex and the computational burden

CONTACT Yafei Chen 346848735@qq.com

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted
Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
2 Y. CHEN AND T. DENG
is excessive, it can lead to delays, oscillations, and poor
stability. Yang et al. (2020) proposed a follower vehi-
cle control law based on estimated relative positions
to follow the leader. If certain conditions regarding the
relative angular velocity between the leader and fol-
lowers are met, estimation errors will converge to zero,
but, it may not be suitable for many scenarios due to
model constraints. Considering the potential changes in
the external environment and uncertainties within the
system, Li et al. (2023) proposed an internal-external
loop control method for the formation of drones. How-
ever this approach requires stability control for each
member of the formation, although optimization was
suggested using Active Disturbance Rejection Control
(ADRC), it imposes a heavy computational burden and
cannot guarantee real-time performance. Hoang et al.
(2021) proposed a distributed control law to achieve the
desired formation in the presence of continuous uncer-
tainties in the follower model, but it exhibits chattering
and lacks strong adaptability when subjected to external
disturbances.
At present, the UAV flight formation control mainly
adopts sliding mode control, backstepping control, PID
control, etc. Most of the current control methods have
the problems of backstepping errors and the dynamic
tracking approach rate. In the authors of Rebbecca and
Yoonsoo (2018) and Wang S. et al. (2022), a PID con-
trol is proposed for constant disturbance rejection for
the vehicles to achieve a desired formation is proposed
to improve the control stability of quadcopters. Hou
and Lu (2022) deal with the formation control problem
of multiple quadrotor systems based on static/dynamic
event-triggered integral sliding mode control (ISMC) and
adaptive sliding mode disturbance estimator (ASMDE).
Wang F. et al. (2022) and Muslimov and Munasypov
(2021) design a distributed formation controller based
on an adaptive backstepping control method to control
a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm to
start and keep flying in a parallel formation of a specific
geometry.
Inspired by the above research, this paper proposes
a Leader-Follower UAV formation flight control method
based on feature modelling. Firstly, the pose relation-
ship model of virtual follower and navigator is con-
structed, and the pose parameters of UAV formation
are adjusted and controlled. The fast piecewise power
approach factor is introduced into the PID controller to
eliminate the chattering phenomenon of sliding mode
control, which improves the stability of UAV formation
flight control. Finally, the simulation test analysis shows
the superior performance of this method in improv-
ing the stability and accuracy of UAV formation flight
control.
2. Leader-follower feature modelling and
control object analysis of UAV formation flight
control
2.1. Leader-follower feature modelling
To realize the Leader-Follower UAV formation flight con-
trol based on feature modelling, firstly, the Leader-
Follower feature model of UAV formation flight is con-
structed, and the trajectory planning and dynamic param-
eter tracking identification of the Leader and Follower
are carried out respectively. The modified DH parameter
method is used to carry out the terminal pose param-
eter conditions of UAV formation flight, and the spatial
coordinate system of UAV formation flight is constructed.
Combined with the transformation analysis of the spa-
tial geometric coordinate system, the coordinate point
where the centroid and geometric centre of UAV overlap
is regarded as the centroid of UAV, and the indirect coor-
dinate system is established with the geometric centre of
UAV as the origin. On the base of Wang et al. (2021), under
the constraint of dense formation flight, the kinematic
model of UAV formation movement is constructed, as
shown in Figure 1.
In the kinematic model of UAV formation movement
shown in Figure 1, a second-order model with unknown
disturbance is used to analyze the parameters of the
three-channel operational model of UAV formation frac-
tal, which is expressed as.
⎧
⎪
⎪ϕ̈a = −(b1 + b1 )ϕ̇a − (b2 + b2 )ϕa
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨ −(b3 + b3 )δϕ + f d1
ψ̈a = −(b1 + b1 )ψ̇a − (b2 + b2 )ψa (1)
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ −(b3 + b3 )δψ + f d2
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩γ̈ = −(d + d )δ + f d
3 3 γ 3
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the kinematic model of UAV for-
mation movement.
 SYSTEMS SCIENCE & CONTROL ENGINEERING: AN OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL
Where, φa , ψa , γ are the time-varying formation flying
attitude angles realized by multi-UAV system, φ̇a , ψ̇a , γ̇
are the angular velocity of UAV flying attitude under
the constraint of azmuth information, φ̈a , is γ̈ are the
angular acceleration of UAV flying attitude under central-
ized formation control, and b1 , b2 , b3 , d3 are the known
coefficients of formation control of azimuth informa-
tion. b1 , b2 , b3 , d3 are uncertain coefficients of
flight disturbance of multi-UAV, f d1 , f d2 , f d3 are distur-
bance parameters of UAV dynamic model parameters,
and δφ , δψ , δγ are control inputs of pitch, yaw and roll
channels in UAV body coordinate system. In this paper,
the buffeting and fuselage flutter of UAV fuselage are
considered.
By using nonlinear system sliding mode parameter
identification, combined with sliding mode surface and
fast piecewise power trend control, a second-order slid-
ing mode surface is established for UAV pitch angle track-
ing control, and the control process is described as fol-
lows.
φ̈a = a1 φ̇a + a2 φa + bu + fd (2)
Where b > 0, φa is the indirect coordinate steady-state
angle with the geometric centre of the UAV as the origin,
φ̇a is the kinematics model parameter of the follower, u is
the input of the controlled object, and fd is the external
interference in the ground coordinate system XOY, and
the formula (2) is rewritten as
b−1 φ̈a − b−1 (a1 φ̇a + a2 φa ) = u + b−1 fd (3)
Set M = b−1 , h(φa , φ̇a ) = −b−1 (a1 φ̇a + a2 φa ), d(t) =
b−1 fd .
According to the tracking measurement results of
linear velocity and angular velocity of UAV, and based
on the analysis of pose parameters of virtual follower
and navigator, the flight control object model of Leader-
Follower UAV formation is constructed.
2.2. Control object analysis
Based on the Leader-Follower control measurement, the
PID correlation controller is used to adjust the longitu-
dinal motion parameters of the parameters. The output
of the UAV flight formation control system is obtained
when the input netj is equal to the output of each branch
connected with it, x1 , x2 , . . . , xn are multiplied by the
adaptive learning weights value w1j , w2j , . . . , wnj respec-
tively. At this time, the roll, pitch, and yaw angles of the
UAV are expressed by Euler angles respectively. Under the
condition of small disturbance, the output characteristic
moments of the variable structure PID neural network are
3
as follows

n
netj = wij xi (t), i = j (4)
i=1
At this time, the Leader-Follower method is used as the
control strategy, and the variable structure PID neuron
is used to simulate the flight state of the UAV, and the
switching model of the flight state of the UAV is obtained
as follows
uj (k + 1) = g(netj − θj , uj (k)) (5)
Where, θj is the error surface of neurons, formation control
is carried out on the two-dimensional plane at this time.
In this paper, a variable structure PID control weighting
vector is introduced into UAV flight control, and the yaw
control parameters of UAV are expressed as
1
x  (k) =  (j = 1, 2, 3) (6)
1 + e−u (k)
According to the principle of small disturbance, it is
obtained that the output v(k) of PID neural network in
UAV flight is related to the reference motion state. At this
time, the controller’s effective tracking of the expected
path is expressed as the second-order differential of the
state component, that is
v(k) = x  (k) (7)
Here, the weight ωij (i = 1, 2; j = 1, 2, 3), when the UAV
moves at a small angle, adjust the weight ωj (j = 1, 2, 3)
from the hidden layer to the output layer.
Set ω = [ω1 , ω2 , ω3 ], When the UAV yaws, it has yaw
moment, ignoring the influence of its pitching and rolling
moments, recording the parameter of the disturbed
motion as x = [φa φ̇a ], and transmitting the navigation
information of the formation through the information
between UAVs, obtaining the spatial distribution esti-
−
mation value ρ (x, ω) of the leader and wingman in the
ground coordinate system, and then.
ˆ ω) = ω 1 σ1 (ϕa , ϕ̇a ) + ω 2 σ2 (ϕa , ϕ̇a )
ρ̄(x,
+ ω 3 σ3 (ϕa , ϕ̇a ) (8)
Where, σj (φa , φ̇a ) is the learning step. Using the cen-
tralized formation control structure of pilot-following
method, the error state equation between the expected
formation spacing is obtained as follows
⎧
⎪
⎪ σ (ϕ , ϕ̇ ) = 1+e−(ω111ϕa +ω21 ϕ̇a )
⎨ 1 a a
1
σ2 (ϕa , ϕ̇a ) =  (9)
⎪ 1+e− (ω21 ϕa +ω22 ϕ̇a )dt
⎪
⎩σ (ϕ , ϕ̇ ) = 1
3 a a 1+e−d(ω11 ϕa +ω21 ϕ̇a )
Where, ∫(•)dt is the integrator of multivariable control
system controlled by UAV formation, and d(•) is the dif-
ferential symbol. With variable structure PID weighted
4 Y. CHEN AND T. DENG

learning, the global optimal solution is obtained, and the speed of each UAV as input variables, the potential field
output characteristic quantity of the attitude controller is function between adjacent aircraft is recorded as:
obtained as follows
H(s) + Y(s) = Gm (s)U(s) (14)
u = hn (φa , φ̇a ) + Mn φ̈ad − Mn ce2 (10)
By introducing the total potential field function of single
The intermediate variables are introduced to construct
node i of UAV formation, taking the deviation of posi-
the deviation control law of position and attitude, and
tion and attitude as input variables, the adaptive law of
the weights are adjusted online by an adaptive algorithm,
attitude system control is obtained as follows
taking

ω̂ = η|sM−1 ẋ(t) = Ax(t) + Bx(t − d1 (t) − d2 (t)) (15)

n |σ (φa , φ̇a ) (11)
η = |M−1
n |(ε0 − ε1 ) > 0 (12) According to the control objective of the attitude subsys-
tem, the network input and output vectors are
To ensure that the moving point can quickly reach the
convergence state in a limited time, the Lyapunov func- Ts .Gcuur_d (s)id_ref ∗ id
G(s) = ∫ (16)
tion is defined as TSW .Gcuur_q (s)iq_ref ∗ iq
1 2 1 −1 T
V= s + η ω̃ ω̃ (13) Where, id_ref , iq_ref , id , iq are a definite function parame-
2 2
ters, which is obtained by measurement, Ts and TSW are
Where, ω̃ = ω∗ − ω̂. According to the connection rela- known parameters, and the variable structure PID inputs
tionship between UAVs in UAV formation, the pose rela- the weight value from the layer to the hidden layer
tionship model between virtual Followers and pilots is
established by trajectory tracking and pose dynamic fit- 
n 
m 
l
ting. The corresponding upper bound estimation value wsij (n0 + 1) = wsij (n0 ) + ηsij δsjh (k)xsi (k)
satisfies the Lyapunov stability principle, and the UAV p=1 h=1 k=1
(17)
formation flight controller is constructed by this method.
Where

3. Design of UAV formation flight controller   u sj (k) − u sj (k − 1)

δsjh (k) = δhp (k)wsjh sgn (18)
net sj (k) − net sj (k − 1)
3.1. Design of variable structure PID neural network
controller Where, ηsij is the learning step, and according to the dif-
ference between the position of the leader and the wing-
According to the established UAV formation flight control
man, the output weight value of the expected formation
object model, an m-output multi-dimensional attitude
of the given formation is obtained
parameter model is used as the multi-variable informa-
tion fusion centre of UAV formation flight control, and
1  
n l
  
the Leader-Follower formation mode is adopted, and the wsjh (n0 + 1) = wsjh (n0 ) + ηsjh δ hp (k)x  sj (k)
l
position information of the Leader is introduced to set p=1 k=1
the anchor point for the whole formation system, so that (19)
the azimuth formation is unique at this time, and there Where
are 2n identical neurons at the input layer of the pilot. 2 yp (k + 1) − yp (k)

According to the order of Leader to Follower, the dynamic δhp (k) = [rp (k) − yp (k)]sgn (20)
l vh (k) − vh (k − 1)
arrangement of UAV formation flight is carried out, and
the first follower is set in the Leader-Follower azimuth Therefore, a Leader-Follower variable structure PID neural
information formation, which realizes the overall scaling network controller for UAV formation flight based on fea-
in the movement process of azimuth information forma- ture modelling is constructed. However, due to the uncer-
tion, and the variable structure controller of UAV forma- tainty of attitude system modelling, UAV formation flight
tion flight with Leader-Follower structure is designed, in control has chattering, which needs to be suppressed.
which the Leader UAV flies autonomously according to
the expected trajectory. And each Leader UAV meets the
3.2. Flight buffeting suppression
expected azimuth constraint. At least two aircraft in the
formation are required to act as leaders, and the leader Based on designing the flight control law of UAV forma-
UAVs still account for a small part of the formation sys- tion with variable structure PID neural network controller,
tem that can be composed of them. With the azimuth and a fast piecewise power approaching factor is introduced
 SYSTEMS SCIENCE & CONTROL ENGINEERING: AN OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL 5

into the PID controller to eliminate the chattering phe- 4. Convergence and stability analysis of flight
nomenon of sliding mode control, and the balance con- control
dition of flight stability is given as f (x0 , u0 ) = 0. The vari-
4.1. Flight control error analysis
able structure PID neural network is used to self-tune the
switching gain flight trajectory, and the estimated value Based on constructing the control law of UAV formation
of the state quantity is [φ0 + φ, φ̇0 + φ̇, θ0 + θ]T , flight, the variable structure control method is used to
and the control target estimation equation of the attitude analyze the convergence and stability of the controller
subsystem is. design error. Similar to the trajectory tracking controller,
⎧ the control error is given as follows:
⎪
⎪ mVθ̇ = (cyα qSM + P)α + mg sin θθ + Pδϕ
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨ + mR lR δ̈ϕ + Fgr e1 = φa − φad
Jz1 ϕ̈ = −cy1 α qS (x − x )α − qS m l2 ϕ̇/V (28)
M g T m dz k
⎪
⎪ e2 = φ̇a − φ̇ad
⎪
⎪ − P(x − x )δ ϕ − m R x1 lR δϕ −
Ẇ
⎪
⎩
R T
mR lR δ̈ϕ (xR − xT ) − JR δ̈ϕ + Mgr The wingman receives the formation controller informa-
(21) tion and sends it to the error generator error vector
The measurement equation of linear velocity and angular together with the expected formation information. The
velocity corresponding to the follower can be expressed derivation of the error is as follows:
as
⎧
⎪ ė1 = e2
⎨−mV σ̇ = Fz
⎪ (29)
ė2 = M−1 −1
n u − Mn hn (φa , φ̇a ) − φ̈ad
Jy ωy1 + (Jx − Jz )ωz1 ωx1 = My1 (22)
⎪
⎪
⎩ϕ = σ + β
The sliding surface designed by exponential reaching law
It is assumed that the disturbance control parameters is
and buffeting characteristics M and h(φa , φ̇a ) of Leader- s = ce1 + e2 (30)
Follower UAV formation flight are composed of two parts,
Then
namely.
ṡ = cė1 + ė2 = cė2 + ė2 (31)
M = Mn + M (23)
When
h(φa , φ̇a ) = hn (φa , φ̇a ) + h(φa , φ̇a ) (24)
ṡ = 0 (32)
Where, Mn and hn (φa , φ̇a ) are the linear differential uncer-
tainties of the virtual follower under the UAV, and M and Then, the sliding mode manifold is designed by using
h(φa , φ̇a ) are the control linear differential uncertainties the sliding mode correlation progressive method, and
of the expected trajectory. To better control the motion of the control law of the UAV can be obtained to solve the
UAV, the actual linear velocity and angular velocity con- longitudinal motion parameters, and the control error
trol quantities are introduced, and the motion constant convergence of the attitude system can be satisfied
compensation equation is obtained:
ce2 + ė2
Mn φ̈a + hn (φa , φ̇a ) = u(t) + ρ(t) (25) = ce2 + ϕ̈a − ϕ̈ad
Where = ce2 + M−1 −1
n u − Mn hn (ϕa , ϕ̇a ) − ϕ̈ad

ρ(t) = −Mφ̈a − h(φa , φ̇a ) + d(t) (26) =0 (33)

The dynamic coefficient, transfer function, and fre-
quency domain characteristics of UAV are solved, the fast
piecewise power approach factor is introduced, and the
−
upper bound of buffeting control is ρ (t), that is.
− For the multi-UAV formation system composed of var-
|ρ(t)| < ρ (t)
Based on the above-mentioned buffeting suppression
algorithm design, an anti-disturbance algorithm is desig
ned for each wingman, and the formation stability is
maintained by anti-buffeting technology.
It can be seen that the designed control law can ensure
that the convergence error tends to zero.
4.2. Global stability analysis of control law
(27)
ious UAVs, the expected target formation can meet
the uniqueness condition by selecting the appropriate
Leader UAV and azimuth constraints. Designing a con-
troller based on feature modelling for each Follower UAV
can enable the multi-UAV system to complete the task
6 Y. CHEN AND T. DENG
of forming, maintaining, and tracking the target forma-
tion. Lyapunov functional is used to analyze the conver-
gence of the controller. To ensure that the moving point
can reach the sliding mode manifold quickly and reduce
chattering in a limited time, Lyapunov candidate func-
tions V1 , V2 and V3 are selected, Lyapunov function of UAV
flight control is constructed, and the global stability prob-
lem is transformed into the problem of deriving V1 , V2 and
V3 , which is as follows:
V̇1 (t) = 2x T (t)P1 [−Ax(t) + Wf (y(t − σ ))]
+ 2yT (t)P2 [−Cy(t) + Dx(t − τ )]
+ 2f T (y(t))ẏ(t) − 2yT (t)ẏ(t)
T ¯
− 2f (y(t))Lẏ(t) − 2y (t)Lẏ(t) T the flight stability control of UAV formation, an experi-
+ 2f T (y(t))K ẏ(t) − 2yT (t)K ẏ(t)
T T
V̇2 (t) ≤ x (t)Q1 x(t) − x (t − τ )Q1 x(t − τ )
t
V̇3 (t) = ẋ T (t)τ Z1 ẋ(t) − ẋ T (s)Z1 ẋ(s)ds
t−τ
t tial rolling and pitching are given. The yaw angles are
+ ẏT (t)σ Z2 ẏ(t) − ẏT (s)Z2 ẏ(s)ds
t−σ2
Where, V̇3 (t) is a non-increasing function, V̇3 (t) > 0, so
it is obtained that V̇3 (t) is bounded, Update the terminal
position of UAV flying formation, and use Bayesian esti-
mation method to analyze Lyapunov stability. Because
the scalar function V3 is positive definite and V̇3 negative
semidefinite, and both of them are continuous with time,
it can be seen that the virtual speed input designed for the
Follower UAV converges to zero with time. According to
the Lyapunov stability condition and LMIs convergence
condition, the qualitative derivation of Leader-Follower
UAV formation flight control is given, and the first Lya-
punov function of UAV formation flight control is defined
as
1 lar velocity vr = 0.5 rad/s.
V = s2 (37)
2 According to the above parameters, the flight stabil-
Then
V̇ = sṡ
= sM−1 −1
n ρ(t) − sMn sgn(Mn )ρ̄(t)sgn(s)
= sM−1 −1
n ρ(t) − |sMn |ρ̄(t)
≤ |sM−1 −1
n ||ρ(t)| − |sMn |ρ̄(t)
= |sM−1
n |(|ρ(t)| − ρ̄(t)) <0
According to Barbalat’s theorem, lim e1 = lim e2 = 0,
t→∞
that is, the orientation between UAVs will gradually con-
verge to the expected value, that is, multiple UAV sys-
tems will form an expected time-varying formation deter-
mined by the Leader’s position and expected orientation.
According to the above analysis, it can be seen that the
variable structure PID neural network controller is used to
design the flight control law of UAV formation, the refer-
ence motion is steady, and the derivative of the Lyapunov
function is less than zero, which indicates that the whole
formation system is fully asymptotically stable under the
action of this control law.
5. Simulation experiment
5.1. Simulation platform and parameter
configuration
To verify the application performance of this method in
mental test is carried out. The simulation experiment is
(34) realized by MATLAB. Without interference, the expected
(35) trajectory starting position (1 m,1.2 m), the terminal head-
ing angle of 0.2 rad and the linear velocity of 12 m/s
are given. Under small disturbance, the actual trajec-
tory starting position is set to (5 m,5 m), and the ini-
(36)
0.25°, 0.15°, 0.001° respectively, the expected trajecto-
ries of the pilot UAV are xd = 3 cos t, yd = 3 sin t, zd =
2 + 0.5t, the initial measurement state vector is X =
[ 0.12 0.25 0.15 0.45 ]T , the inertia parameter of the
fusion of PID variable structure neural network is ε1 =
0.1, the iteration step of error correction is 20, the vari-
able structure PID neural network is set to contain a hid-
den layer, the number of nodes in the hidden layer is
5, the excitation function is tanh(x), and the flight atti-
tude and mechanical parameter information of the UAV
are shown in the table. Attitude and mechanical parame-
ters are set as Leader quality M1 = 1.2 kg, Follower quality
M2 = 0.933 kg, Flight acceleration g = 9.8 m/s2 , Triaxial
moment of inertia Ix , Iy , Iz are 0.013, 0.032 0.021 N. s/ m,
Wheelbase l = 0.25 m, Line velocity vq = 1.3 m/s, Angu-
ity control simulation test of UAV formation is carried out,
including flight attitude stability test, trajectory tracking
test and anti-interference test.
5.2. Flight attitude stability test of UAV formation
In the simulation process of UAV formation flying atti-
(38) tude stability, the parameters, initial pose and initial error
are guaranteed to be the same, and all information in
the flight process is represented by unit vector, so that
t→∞
after each UAV flies to the set initial position and reaches
the initial expected position point, the UAV as Follower
runs the control algorithm designed in this paper to com-
plete the formation and tracking tasks under interference
 SYSTEMS SCIENCE & CONTROL ENGINEERING: AN OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL
Figure 2. Flight attitude test results of UAV formation leader and
two followers. (a)This method; (b) PID; (c) Sliding mode control.
conditions. Under the condition of satisfying the above
constraints, the two Leader UAVs move back and forth
along the Y direction vd = 0.1 m/s. According to the
above parameter settings, the flight attitude angle con-
vergence curves of the Leader UAV and the two Follower
UAVs in different control algorithms are given as shown
in Figure 2.
7
By analyzing Figure 2, it is known that the flight atti-
tude angle tends to be stable gradually with the contin-
uous advancement of formation flight. Under the same
conditions, the approach effect of the method in this
paper is better, and the approach speed and convergence
speed are faster.
5.3. Trajectory tracking test
On the basis of testing the flight attitude stability of UAV
formation, the Leader-Follower formation method is used
to test the flight trajectory tracking performance of UAV.
For two UAVs as Leader, the position tracking control is
carried out through position information, and after reach-
ing the initial expected position, the formation is reor-
ganized according to the expected formation, and the
trajectory tracking curves and absolute error comparison
results of UAV formation by different methods are shown
in Figure 3.
By analyzing the results in Figure 3, it is known that
this method is used for UAV Leader-Follower formation
flight control. This method has good trajectory tracking
performance during long-term formation flight, and the
formation formed by three UAVs has good formation
maintenance and reconstruction ability after the forma-
tion algorithm runs t = 1160s. Comparing the tracking
errors of different flight trajectories, see Table 1. Accord-
ing to the analysis of Table 1, the trajectory tracking error
of this method is the lowest compared with the tradi-
tional method, and the formation system has effectively
completed the task of keeping and tracking the expected
moving formation. This is because of the fast piecewise
power reaching rate, which makes the formation flight
control of Leader-Follower UAVs have high control accu-
racy.
Further, the flight path yaw test is carried out, and the
comparison structure is shown in Figure 4.
It can be seen from Figure 4 that the method in this
paper has the minimum yaw. By selecting the piecewise
power approaching parameter, the curve can converge to
the expected formation distance better, and the conver-
gence speed is faster. The formation ability can complete
the UAV formation reorganization under disturbance and
chattering in a short time, and the trajectory tracking error
approaches zero.
5.4. Buffeting resistance test
Finally, the anti-buffeting performance of UAV formation
flight control is tested, taking the Follower as the test
object. In the test, for the formation determined by the
Leader- azimuth constraint, through the real-time posi-
tion and azimuth constraint of any two Leader UAVs, all
8 Y. CHEN AND T. DENG

Table 1. Comparison of tracking control errors (unit: m).

Path planning distance /m PID Sliding mode control This method
0 ∼ 100 0.448 0.662 0.423
100 ∼ 200 1.515 1.503 0.317
200 ∼ 300 2.625 2.407 0.534
300 ∼ 400 2.591 3.354 0.525
400 ∼ 500 2.377 4.368 0.556

Figure 3. Comparative results of trajectory tracking performance

of UAV formation. (a)This method; (b) PID; (c) Sliding mode control.

information in the flight process is represented by the
unit vector. The flight attitude angles of UAVs are tested
by the improved and improved methods, and the anti-
buffeting performance is compared and analyzed accord-
ing to the oscillation analysis of the flight attitude angles.
The results are shown in Figure 5.
Figure 4. Flight path yaw test. (a)This method; (b)PID; (c) Sliding
mode control.
According to the analysis of Figure 5, the Follower UAV
gradually converges to the expected position under the
action of the designed controller, and always fluctuates
 SYSTEMS SCIENCE & CONTROL ENGINEERING: AN OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL
Figure 5. Comparative analysis of buffeting resistance. (a) Before
improvement; (b) After improvement.
in a small range near the expected position, which shows
that the method in this paper has good anti-chattering
and anti-interference performance.
6. Conclusions
By constructing an optimized flight formation control
model, combined with the reliability control and anti-
disturbance dynamic adjustment of UAV flight formation,
the delay and disturbance during the formation trans-
portation of multi-UAV system are avoided, and the sta-
bility and anti-interference of UAV flight control are guar-
anteed. In this paper, a Leader-Follower UAV formation
flight control method based on feature modelling is pro-
posed. A three-layer feedforward neural network is used
to construct the control object model of UAV formation,
and intermediate variables are introduced to construct
the deviation control law of position and attitude. An
adaptive algorithm is used to adjust the weights online,
and the aircraft bodies are dynamically arranged in the
9
order of Leader to Follower. The variable structure control
method is used to analyze the convergence and stabil-
ity of controller design errors, and a fast piecewise power
approach factor is introduced into the PID controller to
eliminate the chattering phenomenon of sliding mode
control and improve the stability of UAV formation flight
control. In the experimental test, the flight attitude stabil-
ity test, trajectory tracking test, and buffeting resistance
test of UAV formation are carried out. The research shows
that the trajectory tracking error of this method is the
lowest compared with the traditional method, the forma-
tion system effectively completes the task of keeping and
tracking the expected moving formation, and the Leader-
Follower UAV formation flight control has high control
accuracy. The method in this paper has the minimum yaw.
By selecting the piecewise power approach parameters,
the curve can converge to the expected formation dis-
tance better, the convergence speed is faster, and the
formation ability can complete the formation reorgani-
zation of UAV under disturbance and chatter in a short
time.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Funding
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China: [Grant Number 52275051]; Key Project of
Chongqing Technology Innovation and Application Develop-
ment: [Grant Number cstc2019jscx-fxydX0028]; Key Project of
Science and Technology Research of Chongqing Education
Commission: [Grant Number KJZD-K202000701].
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