Flight Formation Control

In the last decade the development and control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has attracted a lot of interest. Both researchers and companies have a growing interest in improving this type of vehicle given their many civilian and military applications.
This book presents the state of the art in the area of UAV Flight Formation. The coordination and robust consensus approaches are presented in detail as well as formation flight control strategies which are validated in experimental platforms. It aims at helping students and academics alike to better understand what coordination and flight formation control can make possible.
Several novel methods are presented:
- controllability and observability of multi-agent systems;
- robust consensus;
- flight formation control;
- stability of formations over noisy networks;
which generate solutions of guaranteed performance for UAV Flight Formation.

Contents

1. Introduction, J.A. Guerrero.
2. Theoretical Preliminaries, J.A. Guerrero.
3. Multiagent Coordination Strategies, J.A. Guerrero, R. Lozano, M.W. Spong, N. Chopra.
4. Robust Control Design for Multiagent Systems with Parametric Uncertainty, J.A. Guerrero, G. Romero.
5. On Adaptive and Robust Controlled Synchronization of Networked Robotic Systems on Strongly Connected Graphs, Y.-C. Liu, N. Chopra.
6. Modeling and Control of Mini UAV, G. Flores Colunga, J.A. Guerrero, J. Escareño, R. Lozano.
7. Flight Formation Control Strategies for Mini UAVs, J.A. Guerrero.
8. Formation Based on Potential Functions, L. García, A. Dzul.
9. Quadrotor Vision-Based Control, J.E. Gomez-Balderas, J.A. Guerrero, S. SALAZAR, R. Lozano, P. Castillo.
10. Toward Vision-Based Coordination of Quadrotor Platoons, L.R. García Carrillo, J.A. Guerrero, R. Lozano.
11. Optimal Guidance for Rotorcraft Platoon Formation Flying in Wind Fields, J.A. Guerrero, Y. Bestaoui, R. Lozano.
12. Impact of Wireless Medium Access Protocol on the Quadrotor Formation Control, J.A. Guerrero, Y. Challal, P. Castillo.
13. MAC Protocol for Wireless Communications, A. Mendez, M. Panduro, O. Elizarraras, D. Covarrubias.
14. Optimization of a Scannable Pattern for Bidimensional Antenna Arrays to Provide Maximum Performance, A. Reyna, M.A. Panduro, A. Mendez.

Chapter 1. Introduction 1
J.A. GUERRERO

1.1. Motivation 1

1.2. Historical background 4

1.3. Flight control 9

1.4. Flight formation control 11

1.5. Outline of the book 13

1.6. Bibliography 15

Chapter 2. Theoretical Preliminaries 19
J.A. GUERRERO

2.1. Passivity 19

2.2. Graph theory 20

2.3. Robustness problems 21

2.4. Bibliography 25

Chapter 3. Multiagent Coordination Strategies 27
J.A. GUERRERO, R. LOZANO, M.W. SPONG, N. CHOPRA

3.1. Introduction 28

3.2. Controllability and observability of interconnections 28

3.3. Formation leader tracking 37

3.4. Time-varying trajectory tracking 40

3.5. Linear high-order multiagent consensus 44

3.6. Conclusion 49

3.7. Bibliography 50

Chapter 4. Robust Control Design of Multiagent Systems with Parametric Uncertainty 51
J.A. GUERRERO, G. ROMERO

4.1. Introduction 52

4.2. Robust control design 54

4.3. Robust stability analysis 56

4.4. Robust stability of time-delay systems 61

4.5. Application to multiagent systems 62

4.6. Conclusions 73

4.7. Bibliography 73

Chapter 5. On Adaptive and Robust Controlled Synchronization of Networked Robotic Systems on Strongly Connected Graphs 75
Y.-C. LIU, N. CHOPRA

5.1. Summary 75

5.2. Introduction 75

5.3. Problem formulation 77

5.4. Adaptive controlled synchronization on strongly connected graphs 79

5.5. Robust controlled synchronization on strongly connected graph 83

5.6. Numerical examples 87

5.7. Conclusions 93

5.8. Appendix 94

5.9. Bibliography 95

Chapter 6. Modeling and Control of Mini UAV 99
G. FLORES COLUNGA, J.A. GUERRERO, J. ESCAREÑO, R. LOZANO

6.1. Introduction 99

6.2. General model 101

6.3. Control of a mini tailsitter 103

6.4. Quad-tilting rotor convertible MAV 117

6.5. Concluding remarks 131

6.6. Bibliography 132

Chapter 7. Flight Formation Control Strategies for Mini UAVs 135
J.A. GUERRERO

7.1. Introduction 135

7.2. Formation geometry 137

7.3. Communication network 138

7.4. Dynamic model 139

7.5. Formation flying control based on coordination 142

7.6. Formation flying control based on nested saturations 148

7.7. Trajectory-tracking control 153

7.8. Simulation results 158

7.9. Conclusions 162

7.10. Bibliography 162

Chapter 8. Formation Based on Potential Functions 165
L. GARCÍA, A. DZUL

8.1. Introduction 165

8.2. Dynamical model 166

8.3. Formation control 167

8.4. Position control 170

8.5. Simulation results 183

8.6. Conclusions 189

8.7. Bibliography 189

Chapter 9. Quadrotor Vision-Based Control 191
J.E. GOMEZ-BALDERAS, J.A. GUERRERO, S. SALAZAR, R. LOZANO, P. CASTILLO

9.1. Introduction 191

9.2. Quadrotor dynamic model and control 194

9.3. Computer vision preliminaries 197

9.4. Tracking of a visual target 201

9.5. Tracking of a visual line 209

9.6. Embedded architecture 214

9.7. Experimental results 214

9.8. Conclusions 221

9.9. Bibliography 221

Chapter 10. Toward Vision-Based Coordination of Quadrotor Platoons 225
L.R. GARCÍA CARRILLO, J.A. GUERRERO, R. LOZANO

10.1. Introduction 225

10.2. Problem statement 227

10.3. Dynamic model and control of a quadrotor 228

10.4. Vision-based position estimation 229

10.5. Coordination position control of two quadrotors 235

10.6. Architecture of the experimental platforms 237

10.7. Experimental results 240

10.8. Conclusions and future work 242

10.9. Bibliography 243

Chapter 11. Optimal Guidance for Rotorcraft Platoon Formation Flying in Wind Fields 247
J.A. GUERRERO, Y. BESTAOUI, R. LOZANO

11.1. Introduction 247

11.2. Preliminaries 250

11.3. Path planning 251

11.4. Quadrotor formation control scheme 258

11.5. Quadrotor trajectory-tracking control 258

11.6. Simulation results 259

11.7. Conclusions and future work 264

11.8. Bibliography 264

Chapter 12. Impact of Wireless Medium Access Protocol on the Quadrotor Formation Control 267
J.A. GUERRERO, Y. CHALLAL, P. CASTILLO

12.1. Introduction 267

12.2. Multiquadrotor consensus 269

12.3. Multiagent consensus over wireless networks 272

12.4. Quadrotor consensus over wireless networks 275

12.5. Simulation results 278

12.6. Conclusions and future work 282

12.7. Bibliography 282

Chapter 13. MAC Protocol for Wireless Communications 285
A. MENDEZ, M. PANDURO, O. ELIZARRARAS, D. COVARRUBIAS

13.1. Introduction 285

13.2. Protocols of medium access control 287

13.3. Proposed MAC protocol 296

13.4. Experimental setup and results 299

13.5. Conclusions 300

13.6. Acknowledgments 301

13.7. Bibliography 301

Chapter 14. Optimization of a Scannable Pattern for Bidimensional Antenna Arrays to Provide Maximum Performance 305
A. REYNA, M.A. PANDURO, A. MENDEZ

14.1. Introduction 305

14.2. Design of planar antenna arrays 306

14.3. Design of concentric ring arrays 314

14.4. Discussions and open problems 319

14.5. Conclusions 320

14.6. Acknowledgments 320

14.7. Bibliography 320

List of Authors 323

Index 325

J.A. Guerrero has a Postdoctoral Position, Heudiasyc CNRS UMR 6599, at Universite de Technologie de Compiegne, Paris, France.

R. Lozano is CNRS Research Director Heudiasyc CNRS UMR 6599 at Universite de Technologie de Compiegne, Compiegne, France and at LAFMIA UMI 3175 CINVESTAV, Mexico City, Mexico.