Event-Based Finite-Time Formation Tracking Control for UAV With Bearing Measurements

This article presents an adaptive finite-time event-triggered bearing-only formation controller for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) subjected to unknown external disturbances. Initially, a finite-time disturbance observer (FTDO) was designed to stabilize the disturbance estimation error without prior knowledge of the disturbance's upper limit. Subsequently, a dynamic surface control (DSC) strategy utilizing only bearing information was developed. This approach addresses formation tracking within finite time intervals and resolves the “differential explosion” problem commonly encountered in traditional backstepping methods by incorporating a tracking differentiator. Additionally, an event-triggered control mechanism was implemented to minimize the frequency of control updates, thereby optimizing computational efficiency. The proposed method's effectiveness and practical applicability are validated through thorough stability proofs of the closed-loop system and extensive simulations, including detailed hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) experiments.