In order to form and maintain formation when the unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) maneuver in three-dimension
space, a formation control method based on non-linear dynamic inversion is presented. The unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)
formation control method can be decomposed into two steps. Firstly, by considering the distributed information topology, a
leader state estimating algorithm is presented based on neighbor UAVs, and the expected command instruction of each UAV is
obtained based on estimated leader state. Then a formation controller is designed based on the nonlinear dynamic inversion
method. The controller can make each UAV follow the command instruction precisely, and form the desired formation
quickly. Simulation results show that, when the formation leader maneuvers in three-dimension space, the followers can
estimate its state with little error, and form and maintain the formation quickly and steadily.