Cooperative Tracking of Fixed-Wing UAVs With Arbitrary Convergence Time: Theory and Experiment

Fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are highly mobile and play a crucial role in low-altitude remote sensing. Cooperative tracking of these UAVs is expected to significantly improve detection, tracking, and defense capabilities over large areas. In this study, we propose a new consensus protocol for multi-UAVs using nonlinear mapping. This protocol allows for advanced regulation of settling time and limits the trajectory within a desired performance range. Compared with the existing methods, the proposed controller exhibits a more moderate magnitude near the prescribed time. We validate the effectiveness of our approach through numerical simulations and hardware-in-loop experiments. For second-order multiagent systems (MASs), the proposed method has a more than 70% improvement in the convergence rate. The maximum control magnitude to converge high-order MASs reduces by 90% compared to existing methods.