Model-Free Adaptive Formation-Containment Control for UAV–UGV Systems Under Fading Channels

This article proposes a model-free adaptive formation-containment control scheme for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) systems consisting of multiple leader UAVs and follower UGVs under fading channels. First, the nonlinear dynamics of the UAVs and UGVs are transformed into linearized data models. Then, the finite-time prescribed performance technique is introduced for the leader UAVs and follower UGVs, and a compensation-based model-free adaptive control (MFAC) algorithm is developed to mitigate the adverse effects of fading channels. Theoretical analysis shows that the leader tracking error and the follower compensated error satisfy the prescribed performance constraints and enter the corresponding terminal prescribed performance regions within the predefined finite times. Finally, simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.