Adaptive Formation Control of USVs- UAVs Heterogeneous Systems With Visibility Constraints in Obstacle Environments

This paper presents a heterogeneous formation control algorithm for unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in obstacle environments. The control algorithm guides the followers to track their leaders and forms a desired formation. To simplify the design process, the dynamics models of underactuated USVs and quadrotor UAVs are described to be unified. Time-varying performance functions are applied to ensure that field-of-view constraints and collision avoidance requirements are met, and to guarantee the tracking errors to converge within a controllable range at the specified speed. Additionally, an artificial potential function is designed to ensure obstacle avoidance in obstacle environments. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed formation control algorithm.