Finite-time formation tracking control with collision avoidance for quadrotor UAVs

• Published in: Journal of the Franklin Institute Vol. 357; no. 7; pp. 4034 - 4058
• Main Authors: Huang, Youfang, Liu, Wen, Li, Bo, Yang, Yongsheng, Xiao, Bing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elmsford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2020; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Attitude control; Collision avoidance; Collision avoidance systems; Computer simulation; Finite element analysis; Observers; Simulation; Sliding mode control; Synchronism; Tracking control; Tracking control systems; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Unmanned helicopters; Upper bounds
• ISSN: 0016-0032; 1879-2693; 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfranklin.2020.01.014

•The formation tracking control for quadrotor UAVs with complicated collision avoidance is investigated.•Two less conservative finite-time disturbance observers are constructed to compensate external disturbances.•Based on the artificial potential function (APF) and fast terminal sliding mode surface (FTSM), a novel sliding mode surface-like variable is proposed as a foundation of the finite-time position controller design.•The novel distributed global finite-time position formation tracking algorithm and finite-time attitude tracking algorithm are respectively proposed for the safe position formation tracking, avoiding the moving obstacles as well as attitude synchronization and tracking.•The whole control system is guaranteed to be globally finite-time stable. In this paper, the distributed finite-time formation tracking control problem with collision avoidance is investigated for multiple quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) subject to external disturbances. Firstly, two finite-time observers are designed to estimate the external disturbance force and torque without upper bound, respectively. Then, utilizing the precisely observed information deriving from the observers, a novel sliding mode surface-like variable based distributed position formation tracking control strategy and a fast terminal sliding mode based attitude tracking control strategy are proposed, respectively. It achieves that the multiple quadrotor UAVs can track the desired trajectory in a specific formation configuration within the safe distance and avoid dynamic obstacles. Meanwhile, the rapid attitude synchronization and tracking is also achieved. The entire multiple UAVs distributed formation tracking closed-loop control system are proved to be globally fast finite-time stable by using Lyapunov-like analysis. Finally, the effective and fine performance of the proposed schemes are demonstrated by a numerical simulation example with a group of quadrotor UAVs.