Dealing with the issue of formation control of heterogeneous multi-unmanned systems with communication restriction, this paper proposes a model predictive control (MPC)-based distributed consensus control strategy for the realization of formation trajectory tracking with obstacle avoidance under communication delay and packet loss. Based on the kinematics and dynamics of quadrotor and two-wheel differential unmanned vehicle, the model of heterogeneous systems is established and the formation control is formulated. A MPC-based consensus control strategy tageting heterogeneous multi-unmanned system for trajectory tracking control with leader-follower architecture is proposed. Furthermore, the recursive feasibility of MPC algorithm and the stability of closed-loop system are further analyzed. Simulation studies were conducted to verify the performance of the control algorithm, which shows that the proposed MPC-based formation consensus control strategy can not only meet obstacle avoidance requirement, but also achieve time-varying formation control quickly and smoothly with \(1s\) communication delay and 60% packet loss rate.