Time-varying Formation Tracking Control for Aircraft Swarm with Switching Directed Sympathetic Networks

Time-varying formation tracking problems for aircraft swarm with switching directed sympathetic topologies are investigated, where the aircrafts approach a predesigned time-varying formation while tracking a leader. A distributed formation tracking protocol is designed based on local neighboring information. Some necessary and sufficient conditions for the aircraft swarm systems with switching directed topologies to achieve time-varying formation tracking are obtained based on matrix and graph theory, which are related to the topology of the sympathetic interaction graphs and the formulation of the predefined formation. Finally, numerical examples are given to verify the correction and validity of the theory.