Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Conventional time‑triggered formation control schemes generate redundant control update commands and communication overhead, while fixed‑geometry formations exhibit poor adaptability in constrained environments. To address these issues, this paper proposes an event‑triggered cooperative formation control method for UAV swarms based on a virtual leader and artificial potential fields. A simplified three‑dimensional point‑mass model is adopted. Based on formation coordination errors and environmental conditions, an adaptive velocity control law for the virtual leader and a dynamic formation switching strategy are designed. The constructed potential field combines formation tracking attractive force, obstacle repulsive force, and inter‑UAV collision avoidance repulsive force. Furthermore, an environment‑aware event‑triggering mechanism is designed, which dynamically adjusts the triggering threshold according to obstacle distance, enabling on‑demand issuance of control update commands. Three‑dimensional simulations are conducted, covering scenarios of narrow passages, scattered obstacles, and a large obstacle. Results show that the proposed method can reduce the frequency of control updates while maintaining good formation tracking and obstacle avoidance performance across all simulated scenarios.</p>