Event-triggered Formation Control of Fixed-wing UAVs with Switching Topologies and Velocity Constraints

This paper investigates the formation control problem for fixed-wing UAVs under Markov switching communication topologies and velocity constraints. The challenges arise from how Markov switching topologies exacerbate communication uncertainty, disrupting coordination and requiring frequent state updates for stability maintenance. These demands strain limited communication resources while complicating safety-critical velocity constraints enforcement. An event-triggered controller is developed, leveraging communication switching mechanism and UAV state estimation errors to enable formation tracking under a generalized communication structure. Additionally, safety velocity constraints of UAV formation are guaranteed via control barrier function. Numerical simulations validate the proposed approach.