Distributed Closed-Form Multi-UAV Formation Control with Event-Triggered Collision Avoidance and Virtual-Structure Navigation

Abstract

This paper presents a distributed closed-form control strategy for multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (multi-UAV) formation flight in cluttered environments. We propose a virtual-centroid-based architecture that reduces leader dependency while maintaining precise geometric configuration. A virtual-centroid navigation strategy generates reference trajectories for formation coordination. For collision avoidance, a generalized p-norm distance function accurately assesses collision risks for diverse obstacle geometries. An event-triggered mechanism incorporating velocity-dependent conditions produces amplitude-modulated, continuity-preserving avoidance vectors. A virtual navigation trajectory dynamically fuses avoidance information with reference tracking, enabling seamless coordination of tracking and collision avoidance. Closed-form controllers are derived for three-degree-of-freedom (3-DoF) dynamic formation control. Safety guarantees and asymptotic convergence in the nominal case are established via generalized Lyapunov analysis for non-smooth dynamical systems. Comparative simulations demonstrate that the proposed method achieves trajectory smoothness comparable to artificial potential field (APF).