Full State Tracking and Formation Control for Under-Actuated VTOL UAVs

Abstract

In this paper, a coupled-attitude based trajectory tracking scheme is proposed to track both the position and attitude of under-actuated unmanned aerial vehicles, and its application on formation control is further demonstrated. An intermediate attitude which is composed of the desired attitude and position information is designed in a two-stage framework, wherein the first stage is the controller design of a translational subsystem and the second stage is that of an attitude subsystem. By virtue of the intermediate attitude, trajectory tracking which includes both attitude and position is realized. The proposed intermediate attitude can be viewed as a bridge connecting the position and attitude motion, and it is a new approach for both single and multiple under-actuated rigid bodies' control. Based on the approach of coupled-attitudebased trajectory tracking, both the set point stabilization and formation tracking tasks for under-actuated vertical takeoff and landing vehicles over a directed acyclic graph can be achieved. The performances of the proposed control laws are illustrated through numerical simulations.INDEX TERMS Intermediate attitude, coupled-attitude based scheme, under-actuated VTOL UAVs, formation tracking.

Leader-Following Consensus and Formation Control of VTOL-UAVs with Event-Triggered Communications

“…Theorem 1. Consider the ith vehicle's rotational dynamics described by (9) and the attitude error defined in (6), with the following bounded control inputs…”

“…In the present section, the aim is to validate the proposed control strategies via simulations and real-time physical implementation. Considering as VTOL-UAVs a set of nano-quadcopters, which are modeled as in (8) and (9). Figure 3 describes the control strategy operating in the ith vehicle.…”

“…Among CPVSs, unmanned flying multi-vehicles are of interest in the industrial and the academic field. A focus has notably been given to the problem of agreement (consensus) and the formation of micro aerial vehicles with capabilities of vertical take-off and landing, so-called VTOL-UAV [8][9][10]. In this case, cooperative distributed control strategies are exciting, and the robotic and control community have developed a set of charming policies and proposals for large-scale multi-agent issues.…”

Formation Control of Multi Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Based on DDS Middleware

“…Peng et al [7] proposed a formation control of multi underactuated VTOL unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The trajectory tracking algorithm and coupled attitude controller are utilized to solve the under-actuated UAV stabilization issue.…”

Event-triggered leader-following consensus of UAVs carrying a suspended load

“…Cooperative distributed control strategies for multiple vehicles have gained increased attention in recent years in the control community because such strategies provide attractive solutions to large-scale multi-agent problems, in which a group of coordinated agents is potentially able to outperform a single or several systems operating independently [1], [2], [3]. As an essential branch of cooperative control, distributed cooperative control of robotic vehicle networks has received much research attention [4], [5], in particular, a focus has been put to the problem of consensus and formation of under-actuated vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) [6], [7], [8]. The main reason for this interest is the growing field of applications of VTOL-UAVs, such as individual transportation [9] or even collaborative transportation [10].…”