Formation Tracking of UAV-UGV Systems Over Event-Triggered Communications

For unmanned aerial vehicle-unmanned ground vehicle (UAV-UGV) systems with disturbances, this paper investigates the formation tracking issue under event-triggered communications. A hierarchical control strategy is proposed, comprising a distributed event-triggered filter and a local controller. The former is responsible for estimating the desired position of the leader, while the latter employs a filter-based robust controller to ensure the formation tracking errors converge to a small residual set. The salient feature lies in the fact that the necessity for continuous communication among neighbors is obviated, and it has wider robustness to disturbances. Finally, simulations are conducted to validate the feasibility of the proposed strategy, showing accurate formation tracking with reduced communication overhead.