Circular Formation Control of Target Enclosing for Fixed-Wing UAVs in Three-Dimensional Space

This paper tackles the problem of achieving circular formation target enclosing control for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in three-dimensional (3D) space with chain communication and communication-free modes. Initially, through the utilization of the 3D space attraction vector and the projection of the angular error of the fixed-wing UAVs onto the trajectory plane, a circular formation control strategy is designed to achieve the circular formation target enclosing control with chain communication mode. Subsequently, through the utilization of relative measurements and information obtained by relying only on its onboard sensors, the strategy achieves the circular formation target enclosing control among fixed-wing UAVs with communication-free mode, effectively addressing and mitigating collision concerns along the circular trajectory. Finally, the designed controllers are validated through numerical and semi-physical simulations.