Event-Triggered formation control for time-delayed discrete-Time multi-Agent system applied to multi-UAV formation flying

This paper studies the formation control for a time-delayed discrete-time multi-agent system (MAS). An event-triggered controller is proposed to reduce the communication load of the system. Based on the designed event-triggered condition and properties of Schur stable matrix, the stability of formation for discrete-time MAS is proved. Utilizing the virtual simulation platform integrated Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo, a virtual scene with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) models is built and the verification for the theoretical algorithm is completed. Finally, an experimental platform with four practical UAVs is constructed and the result shows that the expected formation is achieved and controller proposed can solve the formation control problem for time-delayed discrete-time MASs. Besides, the effectiveness of the event-triggered mechanism on reducing communication frequency is comfirmed in practical scenarios.