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Article

Fixed-Time Formation Control for MAV/UAVs with Switching Threshold Event-Triggered Strategy

1
Air Traffic Control and Navigation College, Air Force Engineering University, Xi’an 710051, China
2
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Xidian University, Xi’an 710126, China
3
Beijing Blue Sky Science and Technology Innovation Center, Beijing 100010, China
4
China Airport Planning & Design Institute Co., Ltd., Northwest Branch, Xi’an 710075, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Drones 2025, 9(10), 710; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9100710 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 24 August 2025 / Revised: 7 October 2025 / Accepted: 8 October 2025 / Published: 14 October 2025

Abstract

The cooperative flight of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (MAV/UAVs) has recently become a focus in the research of civilian and humanitarian fields, in which formation control is crucial. This paper takes the improvement of convergence performance and resource conservation as the entry point to study control problems of cooperative formation configuration of MAV/UAVs. Following the backstepping recursive design procedures, an event-triggered fixed-time formation control strategy for MAV/UAVs operating under modeling uncertainties and external disturbances is presented. Moreover, a novel switching threshold event-triggered mechanism is introduced, which dynamically adjusts control signal updates based on system states. Compared with periodic sampling control (Controller 1), fixed threshold strategies (Controller 2) and relative threshold strategies (Controller 3), this mechanism enhances resource efficiency and prevents Zeno behavior. On the basis of Lyapunov stability theory, the closed-loop system is shown to be stable in the sense of the fixed-time concept. Numerical simulations are carried out in Simulink to validate the effectiveness of the theoretical findings. The results show that compared with the three comparison methods, the proposed control method saves 86%, 34%, and 43% of control transmission burden respectively, which significantly reduces the number of triggered events.
Keywords: manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (MAV/UAVs); fixed-time stability; switching threshold event-triggered mechanism; formation control manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (MAV/UAVs); fixed-time stability; switching threshold event-triggered mechanism; formation control

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Han, X.; Lv, M.; Shen, D.; Shi, Y.; Zhang, B.; Yu, P. Fixed-Time Formation Control for MAV/UAVs with Switching Threshold Event-Triggered Strategy. Drones 2025, 9, 710. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9100710

AMA Style

Han X, Lv M, Shen D, Shi Y, Zhang B, Yu P. Fixed-Time Formation Control for MAV/UAVs with Switching Threshold Event-Triggered Strategy. Drones. 2025; 9(10):710. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9100710

Chicago/Turabian Style

Han, Xueyan, Maolong Lv, Di Shen, Yuyuan Shi, Boyang Zhang, and Peng Yu. 2025. "Fixed-Time Formation Control for MAV/UAVs with Switching Threshold Event-Triggered Strategy" Drones 9, no. 10: 710. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9100710

APA Style

Han, X., Lv, M., Shen, D., Shi, Y., Zhang, B., & Yu, P. (2025). Fixed-Time Formation Control for MAV/UAVs with Switching Threshold Event-Triggered Strategy. Drones, 9(10), 710. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9100710

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