Disturbance Rejection Control for Multi-UAV Formations Based Extended State Observer

This paper investigates a disturbance rejection control method for multiple drones formation under system uncertainties and unidentified external time-varying disturbances. Firstly, a distributed formation control method is proposed by utilizing information exchange among neighboring drones, enabling follower drones to acquire mission data from the neighboring drones in the formation. Subsequently, the system uncertainties and unidentified external time-varying disturbances in multiple drones drones formation system are considered as lumped disturbances, which are calculated using the extended state observer (ESO) instantly. With the aim of effectively suppress the effect of lumped disturbances on system performance, the sliding mode control (SMC) method achieves dynamic compensation by incorporating a disturbance compensation term into the controller. Furthermore, Lyapunov stability analysis proves the finite-time convergence and closed-loop system stability characteristics. The method effectiveness is validated via numerical simulations.