Event‐Triggered Fault‐Tolerant Formation Tracking for Quadrotor Swarms Under Fully Distributed Communication

ABSTRACT This article addresses the problem of fully distributed fault‐tolerant formation control for leader‐follower quadrotor swarm systems subject to actuator faults and external disturbances. An event‐based adaptive sliding‐mode control strategy is designed, operating without any global information. Finite‐time reachability of the sliding surface is ensured, which in turn guarantees robust stability with respect to faults and disturbances and accelerates the convergence. In addition, Lyapunov‐based analysis is carried out to derive sufficient conditions for the desired formation performance. Furthermore, simulation outcomes illustrate that the proposed method achieves the desired formation performance, avoids Zeno behavior, and achieves fault‐tolerant control with reduced computational burden.