Adaptive fixed-time event-triggered formation control for stratospheric airships with prescribed performance

This study addresses the formation tracking control problem of multiple stratospheric airships for environmental monitoring, particularly of typhoon structures. The goal is to ensure that airship followers achieve a predetermined geometric configuration while simultaneously tracking a virtual leader in unknown disturbance environments. A novel fixed-time event-triggered formation tracking controller with prescribed performance is developed for stratospheric airships. Critically, it enforces user-defined constraints on both the tracking error and convergence rate, guaranteeing convergence to an arbitrarily small residual set within a fixed time. An event-triggered mechanism mitigates communication burdens and enhances scalability by transmitting control updates only when necessary, rigorously excluding Zeno behavior. Radial basis function neural networks integrated with a second-order command filter compensate for system nonlinearities and disturbances. Stability analysis and simulation results verify the performance and robustness of the proposed method.