1 Department of Automation and Information Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, 710048, China. Electronic address: xhxue@xaut.edu.cn.
2 Department of Automation and Information Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, 710048, China. Electronic address: binyuan@stu.xaut.edu.cn.
3 Department of Automation and Information Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, 710048, China. Electronic address: yiym@xaut.com.
4 Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada. Electronic address: ymzhang@encs.concordia.ca.
5 National Key Laboratory of Aerospace Flight Dynamics (AFDL), Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian 710072, China. Electronic address: xkyue@nwpu.edu.cn.
6 Department of Automation and Information Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, 710048, China. Electronic address: lingxiamu@xaut.com.

This paper proposes a novel multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) connectivity preservation controller, suitable for scenarios with bounded actuation and limited communication range. According to the hierarchical control strategy, controllers are designed separately for the position and attitude subsystems. A distributed position controller is developed, integrating an indirect coupling control mechanism. The innovative mechanism associates each UAV with a virtual proxy, facilitating connections among adjacent UAVs through these proxies. This structuring assists in managing the actuator saturation constraints effectively. The artificial potential function is utilized to preserve network connectivity and fulfill coordination among all virtual proxies. Additionally, an attitude controller designed for finite-time convergence guarantees that the attitude subsystem adheres precisely to the attitude specified by the distributed position controller. Simulation results validate the efficacy of this distributed formation controller with connectivity preservation under bounded actuation conditions. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the distributed connectivity preservation controller with bounded actuation.