Distributed Cooperative Control of Human–UAV Swarm Based on State Observation

Abstract

This article proposes an integrated framework for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) cooperative control, combining advanced distributed control strategies with human–swarm interaction mechanisms to address obstacle avoidance scenarios. First, distributed controllers are designed to explicitly account for observer errors. Specifically, first-order and high-order control barrier functions (CBFs), integrated with the bounded-error observer, are proposed and theoretically validated. These CBFs impose constraints on the control inputs to guarantee system safety during the entire operation. Second, a three-tier human–UAV swarm interaction architecture is introduced, enabling comprehensive human intervention across different operational levels. To verify the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed method, simulation experiments are conducted in a target tracking and rescue scenario. The integrated observer–controller design demonstrates superior performance over conventional approaches, exhibiting enhanced obstacle avoidance capabilities and robust disturbance rejection. The three-tier framework can effectively coordinate human–UAV swarm interaction and improve the efficiency of the swarm mission.