Predefined time formation control for glide multiple aircraft under event‐triggered mechanism

Abstract

SummaryThis article investigates the event‐triggered predefined time gliding formation control for multiple aircraft based on the leader‐follower mode. For the banked‐to‐turn (BTT) aircraft, The main technical challenge is to realize a predefined time control from the aerodynamic control surfaces to the direction of flight speed under an event‐triggered mechanism. First, under the leader‐follower mode, the desired tracking commands for the leader's trajectory inclination angle and trajectory declination angle are designed, with followers set to track the leader's outputs. Second, for each BTT aircraft, the inner and outer loop control system is constructed, and the virtual angle of attack and flight path angle laws are formulated to decouple the inner‐outer structure. For the outer loop system, the predefined time‐stabilized of trajectory inclination angle and trajectory declination angle is achieved by introducing the time scale function. Concerning the inner‐loop system, a sliding mode surface with predefined time stabilization is constructed, and a predefined time extended state observer (PTESO) is designed to estimate the total disturbances. An event‐triggered predefined time control is proposed for the aerodynamic control surfaces to realize the aircraft's flight direction tracking. Finally, the stability of the closed‐loop system and the avoidance of the Zeno phenomenon for each aircraft is proved using Lyapunov's theory. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed formation control in the article.