Communication free leader-follower formation control of unmanned aircraft systems

This paper proposes a formation control strategy for unmanned aircraft under which there is no need to information exchange among aircraft. Based on the measurement of relative information such as distances and orientations obtained from practical sensors, the formation is realized by employing the feedback linearization approach. By considering the leader maneuver to be unknown, a nonlinear estimator is designed and the stability of the combined controller-estimator is guaranteed. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed formation flight control strategy. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.