Distributed finite‐time formation control for multiple quadrotors via local communications. (31st July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dou, Liqian; Yang, Chuang; Wang, Dandan; Tian, Bailing; Zong, Qun
• Other Names: Edwards Christopher guestEditor.; Simani Silvio guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: International journal of robust and nonlinear control. Volume 29:Number 16(2019)
• Page Start: 5588
• Page End: 5608
• Publication Date: 2019-07-31
• Subjects: distributed finite‐time state observers -- disturbance observers -- formation -- quadrotors; Automatic control -- Periodicals; Control theory -- Periodicals; Nonlinear systems -- Periodicals; 629.836
• DOI: 10.1002/rnc.4687
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1049-8923

Abstract

Summary: This paper investigates finite‐time formation tracking control problem for multiple quadrotors with external disturbance. The states of the virtual leader are not available to all the followers and the network topology is described by a directed graph. The model of each quadrotor is divided into position subsystem and attitude subsystem. Firstly, novel distributed finite‐time state observers are designed to estimate the relative state errors between followers and the virtual leader. Secondly, the values of these observers are used to design controllers that achieve finite‐time robust coordinated tracking in the position subsystem. Thirdly, the terminal sliding mode disturbance observers and finite‐time attitude tracking controllers are proposed, respectively, in the attitude subsystem to estimate the external disturbance and achieve attitude tracking control. The finite‐time stability analysis of the control algorithms is carried out using the Lyapunov theory and the homogeneous technique. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by numerical simulations.