Missile formation controller design based on disturbance observer and finite-time control

To keep multiple missiles to fly in a formation, a robust controller for missile formation is designed. Based on the leader-follower formation mode, two formation relative motion models in different coordinate frames are established and compared. The three-dimension model built in a follower reference coordinate frame is chosen due to its control inputs decoupling, then this model is decoupled into three subsystems. For each subsystem a robust formation controller is proposed based on the disturbance observer and finite-time control theory when the external disturbance exits. The stability of the closed-loop system adopting the controller is proved theoretically. Simulation results show that the follower can follow the leader and keep the desired formation despite the external disturbance, which validates the effectiveness of the proposed robust formation controller.