High-level Nonlinear Underactuated Controller for a Leader-Follower Formation Involving a Miniature Helicopter and a Ground Robot

ALEXANDRE S. BRANDAO; IGOR PIZETTA; MARIO SARCINELLI; RICARDO CARELLI

Ceará, Fortaleza

Simposio; 2012 Brazilian Robotics Symposium and Latin American Robotics Symposium; 2012

Universidade Federal de Fortaleza

This work addresses a kinematic leader-follower cooperative control scheme for a helicopter and a ground mobile robot. First, a nonlinear underactuated control strategy previously proposed for the UAV is implemented to track a UGV. In the sequel, the formation control strategy based on the kinematics model of both vehicle and a nonlinear controller based on its inverse kinematic is proposed to guide the leader follower formation. It is important to emphasize that the UAV references are compensated in the fashion of a cascade innerclosed loop by the UAV nonlinear underactuated controller. Simulation results validating the proposed system are presented and discussed.