Formation tracking control for an air–ground system under position deviations and wind disturbances

Abstract In this paper, a formation tracking control strategy based on a leader–follower structure is investigated under position deviations and wind disturbances for an air–ground system. A backstepping controller is designed to achieve the expected trajectory‐tracking performance for the leader which is a car‐like vehicle. A robust nonsingular integral terminal sliding mode formation controller based on leader–follower formation errors is presented to provide desired positions under the influence of position deviation for the follower which is a quadrotor. A backstepping‐based adaptive recursive sliding mode position controller is proposed for the follower to ensure tracking accuracy under wind disturbances. Comparison experiments with existing studies show superior performances and effectiveness of the proposed control method for the air–ground system.