3D Formation Control of Autonomous Vehicles Based on Null-Space

ROSALES CLAUDIO D.; LEICA PAULO; SARCINELLI MARIO-FILHO; SCAGLIA GUSTAVO; CARELLI RICARDO

Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems

Springer Netherlands

Año: 2016 vol. 84 p. 453 - 467

0921-0296

This paper proposes a new algorithm for controlling a formation of multiple autonomous aerial vehicles based on multiple control objectives. The strategy includes using the null space of a Jacobian matrix to achieve the different control objectives in a non-conflicting way. The mission is split into twoelementary tasks, with suitable command references generated for each robot.The commands for each task are combined through a hierarchical method byusing the projection of commands onto the null space. The incorporation ofground vehicles in the control scheme is also considered, thus extending theproposed scheme for controlling heterogeneous formations. The stability analysis of the control system shows that such a system is asymptotically stable,and experimental results validate the proposed control system.