Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) cooperative control means that a group of UAVs based on inter-aircraft communication complete a common mission with rational division of labor and cooperation by using swarm intelligence as the core. UAV swarm is a multi-agent system in which many UAVs with certain independence ability carry out various tasks based on local rules. Compared with a single UAV, UAV swarm has great advantages such as high efficiency, high flexibility and high reliability. In view of the latest developments of UAV cooperative control technology in recent years, firstly, the application prospect of multi-UAV technology was illustrated by giving examples from the perspectives of civil use and military use. Then, the differences and development statuses of the three mainstream cooperative control methods:consensus control, flocking control and formation control were compared and analyzed. Finally, some suggestions on delay, obstacle avoidance and endurance of cooperative control were given to provide some help for the research and development of UAV collaborative control in the future.