Cooperative Path Following of Multiple Multirotors Over Time-Varying Networks

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2015

Authors

Venanzio Cichella (Author) Other; Isaac Kaminer (Author) Other; Vladimir Dobrokhodov (Author) Other; Enric Xargay (Author) Other; Ronald Choe (Author) Other; Naira Hovakimyan (Author) Other; Pedro P Aguiar (Author) FEUP; Antonio M Pascoal (Author) Other

Journal

Title: IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering

Vol. 12

Pages: 945-957

ISSN: 1545-5955

Publisher: IEEE

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 24 Citations

Scopus - 31 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00G-E84

DOI: 10.1109/tase.2015.2406758

Abstract (EN): This paper addresses the problem of time-coordination of a team of cooperating multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles that exchange information over a supporting time-varying network. A distributed control law is developed to ensure that the vehicles meet the desired temporal assignments of the mission, while flying along predefined collision-free paths, even in the presence of faulty communication networks, temporary link losses, and switching topologies. In this paper, the coordination task is solved by reaching consensus on a suitably defined coordination state. Conditions are derived under which the coordination errors converge to a neighborhood of zero. Simulation and flight test results are presented to validate the theoretical findings. Note to Practitioners-This paper presents an approach which enables a fleet of multirotor UAVs to follow a set of desired trajectories and coordinate along them, thus satisfying specific spatial and temporal assignments. The proposed solution can be employed in applications in which multiple vehicles are tasked to execute cooperative, collision-free maneuvers, and accomplish a common goal in a safely manner. An example is sequential monitoring, in which the UAVs have to visit and monitor a set of points of interest, while maintaining a desired temporal separation between each other. In this paper, we also simulate a scenario in which the vehicles, positioned in a square room, are required to exchange position with each other. It is shown that the proposed control algorithm not only ensures that the UAVs arrive at the final destinations at the same time, but also guarantees safety, i.e., the vehicles avoid collision with each other at all times.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 13