Fixed‐Time Dynamic Event‐Triggered Formation Control for Unmanned Aerial‐Ground Vehicle (UAV‐UGV) Heterogeneous System

ABSTRACT This study proposes a fixed‐time trajectory tracking control method based on the dynamic event‐triggered mechanism (DETM) to address the formation problem for unmanned aerial‐ground vehicle (UAV‐UGV) heterogeneous systems subject to external disturbances. Firstly, to estimate external disturbances for each member in the system, a fixed‐time disturbance observer (FTDO) is constructed. Then, based on the integration of FTDO, backstepping control, and fixed‐time stability theory, a fixed‐time formation control protocol is developed to make the system own faster transient response and fixed‐time formation convergence error independent of initial states, while using a non‐linear filter to eliminate computer explosion problem in the process of backstepping design. Subsequently, a DETM is integrated into the control protocol such that the merits of lower control frequency and lower communication burden on the system can be achieved. The proposed method can not only improve the robustness, but also save the system energy while ensuring tracking accuracy. Finally, compared with existing methods, the simulation results show the validity and superiority of the proposed method.