Cooperative Path Following of Multiple Multirotors Over Time-Varying Networks

Venanzio Cichella; Isaac Kaminer; Vladimir Dobrokhodov; Enric Xargay; Ronald Choe; Naira Hovakimyan; A Pedro Aguiar; Antonio M Pascoal

doi:10.1109/TASE.2015.2406758

Journal article

Cooperative Path Following of Multiple Multirotors Over Time-Varying Networks

Venanzio Cichella, Isaac Kaminer, Vladimir Dobrokhodov, Enric Xargay, Ronald Choe, Naira Hovakimyan, A Pedro Aguiar and Antonio M Pascoal

IEEE transactions on automation science and engineering, Vol.12(3), pp.945-957

07/2015

DOI: 10.1109/TASE.2015.2406758

View Online

Abstract

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.

Vehicle Dynamics

Consensus algorithms

time-coordinated path following

Vectors

Trajectory

Communication networks

Acceleration

networked systems

Vehicles

Convergence

Details

Title: Subtitle: Cooperative Path Following of Multiple Multirotors Over Time-Varying Networks
Creators: Venanzio Cichella - Coordinated Sci. Lab., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
Isaac Kaminer - Dept. of Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., Naval Postgrad. Sch., Monterey, CA, USA
Vladimir Dobrokhodov - Dept. of Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., Naval Postgrad. Sch., Monterey, CA, USA
Enric Xargay - Coordinated Sci. Lab., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
Ronald Choe - Coordinated Sci. Lab., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
Naira Hovakimyan - Coordinated Sci. Lab., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
A Pedro Aguiar - Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Porto (FEUP), Porto, Portugal
Antonio M Pascoal - Inst. for Syst. & Robot. (ISR), Univ. of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: IEEE transactions on automation science and engineering, Vol.12(3), pp.945-957
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/TASE.2015.2406758
ISSN: 1545-5955
eISSN: 1558-3783
Language: English
Date published: 07/2015
Academic Unit: Mechanical Engineering
Record Identifier: 9984064113602771

Metrics

6 Record Views

42 Times Cited - Web of Science