Distributed predefined-time control of time-varying formations for heterogeneous UAV–USV multiagent systems with intermittent actuator faults and prescribed performance

In this paper, the distributed predefined-time fault-tolerant time-varying formation control problem for heterogeneous unmanned aerial vehicle-unmanned surface vehicle (UAV-USV) systems with intermittent actuator faults, external disturbances, and prescribed performance constraints is investigated. First, a distributed adaptive predefined-time observation scheme is developed, allowing follower agents to obtain the virtual leader’s state information required for formation coordination. Second, an adaptive fault compensation mechanism is established to mitigate intermittent compound actuator faults, including multiplicative effectiveness degradation and additive bias faults. Third, a predefined-time convergent multilayer neural network (MNN) with a novel dual-power adaptive weight update law is developed to approximate the external disturbances online. Moreover, a prescribed performance error transformation is further embedded into the time-varying formation controller, converting the constrained tracking problem into an equivalent unconstrained stabilization problem. A Lyapunov stability analysis verifies that all the closed-loop signals remain bounded and that the formation tracking errors converge to a compact residual set on the order of 10 − 2 within an explicitly assigned time bound while satisfying the prescribed performance requirements. Finally, numerical simulations demonstrate that the formation errors converge within the assigned predefined-time bound T c = 30 s , further validating the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.