Range observer‐based formation control for heterogeneous spatial underactuated vehicle networks

Abstract

In this work, we solve the distributed formation control problem for heterogeneous spatial underactuated vehicle networks subject to switching topologies.We consider the spatial rigid body model of underwater and aerial vehicles with one translational actuator for propulsion and three rotational actuators, without any simplification. A distributed finite-time sliding mode observer is designed to estimate the ranges between vehicles based on the bearing angles, and thus, the control design does not require relative position or distance measurements.A coordinate transformation is proposed to define continuous reference velocity trajectories under switching topologies. Then, based on the cascade structure, a distributed formation protocol is presented which guarantees the global asymptotic convergence for the closed-loop system. The formation controller has a simple structure, requires only neighbor-to-neighbor information exchange, and all the measurements may be obtained using simple onboard sensors. Numerical simulations for a group of heterogeneous spatial underactuated vehicles including autonomous underwater vehicles and quadrotors are presented.