Distributed adaptive formation control of Multi-Agent Systems in three-dimensional space

In this paper, we discuss formation and maneuver control of multi-agent systems (MAS) in the three-dimensional space. The system is controlled in a distributed manner with connected communication links. Our considered agents are mainly focused on the micro unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and thus a second-order integrator model is adopted. The control target is to achieve desired formation and reference trajectory tracking. The agents only use information from their neighbors and keep the connectivity to maintain the communication while tracking the reference trajectory. Moreover, our approach allows the agents to form into the desired shape with a given order relation, due to the given formation formulation and the adaptive control structure. Several examples and software in the loop simulation are given to validate the proposed results.