Distributed cooperative control of autonomous multi-agent UAV systems using smooth control

This paper addresses the cooperative control prob-lem of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (multi-UAV) systems.First,a new distributed consensus algorithm for second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems (MAS) is formulated under the leader-following approach.The algorithm provides smooth input signals to the agents' control channels,which avoids the chat-tering effect generated by the conventional sliding mode-based control protocols.Second,a new formation control scheme is developed by integrating smooth distributed consensus control protocols into the geometric pattern model to achieve three-di-mensional formation tracking.The Lyapunov theory is used to prove the stability and convergence of both distributed con-sensus and formation controllers.The effectiveness of the pro-posed algorithms is demonstrated through simulation results.