A two‐loop group formation tracking control scheme for networked tri‐rotor UAVs using an ARE‐based approach

Abstract

Cooperative control of networked unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has received significant research interest over the last decade due to its potential applications in military security and surveillance, search and rescue, planetary exploration, precision agriculture, and so on. Many of these practical activities can be formulated as a group formation tracking problem with multiple targets to track. This paper aims to address such problems via designing a cooperative control scheme for networked tri‐rotor UAVs connected with directed graph topology. The proposed methodology consists of a two‐loop control scheme—the inner loop applies a robust feedback linearization technique to linearize the coupled, nonlinear dynamics of the tri‐rotor UAVs; while the outer loop facilitates an ARE‐based cooperative group formation tracking scheme. Tri‐rotor UAVs are considered in this paper instead of quad‐rotor UAVs, which are more common in drone applications, to conquer a major limitation of the quad‐rotor UAVs that it cannot alter its attitude independently while hovering at a particular height. A rigorous theoretical proof is given to establish the two‐loop control scheme exploiting the Lyapunov stability approach and algebraic Riccati equation (ARE)‐based optimal control policy. An in‐depth case study on a multitarget surveillance mission has been performed in this paper using a virtual reality software simulation platform to demonstrate the usefulness and efficacy of the proposed scheme.

Distributed control of target cooperative encirclement and tracking using range‐based measurements

“…In Zou et al [18], based on global information, a novel distributed consensus tracking protocol is developed is developed to solve the problem of distributed fault‐tolerant consensus tracking control for a class of nonlinear multi‐agent systems. In Bhowmick et al [6], the 3D Cartesian coordinate information was considered to design a two‐loop control cooperative control for tri‐rotor UAVs exploiting the Lyapunov stability approach and the optimal control policy based on algebraic Riccati equation. However, in practical applications, this ideal situation is often difficult to achieve due to factors such as communication, security, and control.…”

“…The UAVs can obtain target information or restrict the movement of the target through surveillance, destruction, and so on. Many scholars have devoted themselves to solving related problems in this field and have given solutions [6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Ideally, a UAV on a mission can directly obtain the required status information, such as the coordinates, speed, distance, and heading of the target and neighboring UAVs. Some studies on tracking problems assumed that all UAVs have access to this information [6,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. In Zou et al [18], based on global information, a novel distributed consensus tracking protocol is developed is developed to solve the problem of distributed fault-tolerant consensus tracking control for a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems.…”

Active damping methods to suppress the payload swing by a 3‐degree of freedom cable‐driven parallel robot

“…Qi et al [29] proposed an online trajectory planning method to eliminate the swing angle of the payload and achieve precise positioning of the doublependulum quadrotor transportation system. Aiming at the problem of target tracking control for various lifting operations using unmanned aerial vehicles in the industrial and agricultural fields, Bhowmick et al [30] designed a cooperative control scheme for networked trirotor UAVs connected with directed graph topology. Qian and Fang [31] designed a nonlinear feedback controller based on disturbance observer, and the simulation results showed that the designed controller can effectively resist the motion disturbance of the ship and help to restrain the swing of the payload.…”

Event‐triggered cooperative control for moving target encirclement and tracking with time‐varying pattern by UAV formation

“…In these scenarios, the objective is to encircle the target and maintain a constant relative position to ensure effective tracking. In [13], the design of a two-loop cooperative control for tri-rotor UAVs was based on the consideration of 3D Cartesian coordinate information. The approach employed the Lyapunov stability method and an optimal control policy using algebraic Riccati equations.…”