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Consensus controller for multi-UAV navigation

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Abstract

In this paper, we design consensus algorithms for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). We mainly focus on the control design in the face of measurement noise and propose a position consensus controller based on the sliding mode control by using the distributed UAV information. Within the framework of Lyapunov theory, it is shown that all signals in the closed-loop multi- UAV systems are stabilized by the proposed algorithm, while consensus errors are uniformly ultimately bounded. Moreover, for each local UAV, we propose a mechanism to define the trustworthiness, based on which the edge weights are tuned to eliminate negative influence from stubborn agents or agents exposed to extremely noisy measurement. Finally, we develop software for a nano UAV platform, based on which we implement our algorithms to address measurement noises in UAV flight tests. The experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UTA Research Institute, University of Texas at Arlington, 7300 Jack Newell Blvd S, Fort Worth, TX, 76118, U.S.A.

    Patrik Kolaric, Ci Chen, Ankur Dalal & Frank L. Lewis

  2. School of Automation, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of IoT Information Technology, Guangzhou Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Ci Chen

  3. State Key Laboratory of Synthetical Automation for Process Industries, Northeastern University, Shenyang Liaoning, 110819, China

    Frank L. Lewis

Authors
  1. Patrik Kolaric
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  2. Ci Chen
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  3. Ankur Dalal
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  4. Frank L. Lewis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrik Kolaric.

Additional information

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61633007, 61703112), in part by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2016M600643) and the special fund (No. 2017T100618), and in part by the Office of Naval Research (No. N00014-17-1-2239, N00014-18-1-2221).

Patrik KOLARIC has received his bachelor’s and master’s degree at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Zagreb, Croatia in 2014 and 2016 respectively. He is pursuing Ph.D. under Dr. Frank L. Lewis’s supervision at University of Texas at Arlington. He is research assistant in Autonomous System Lab at University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute where he works on wide range of practical topics related to robotics. His areas of interests include intelligent control, machine learning and sensor networking.

Ankur V. DALAL has received his bachelor’s degree from India. Along with pursuing his Masters in Mechanical engineering at University of Texas at Arlington, he has been working as a research intern at University of Texas Arlington Research Institute and robotics engineer at drone delivery company, WAEC LLC. His areas of interest include in robotics and controls.

Ci CHEN received the B.Sc. degree and Ph.D. with the School of Automation, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 2011 and 2016, respectively. He was a research assistant in School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, from October 2015 to January 2016. Currently, he is with School of Automation, Guangdong University of Technology, and also with The University of Texas at Arlington.

Frank L. LEWIS Member, National Academy of Inventors. Fellow IEEE, Fellow IFAC, Fellow AAAS, Fellow U.K. Institute of Measurement & Control, PE Texas, U.K. Chartered Engineer. UTA Distinguished Scholar Professor, UTA Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Moncrief-O’Donnell Chair at the University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute. Qian Ren Thousand Talents Consulting Professor, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China. China Liaoning Friendship Award. He obtained the Bachelor’s Degree in Physics/EE and the MSEE at Rice University, the MS in Aeronautical Engineering from Univ. W. Florida, and the Ph.D. at Ga. Tech. He works in feedback control, intelligent systems, cooperative control systems, and nonlinear systems. He is author of 7 U.S. patents, numerous journal special issues, 374 journal papers, and 20 books, including Optimal Control, Aircraft Control, Optimal Estimation, and Robot Manipulator Control which are used as university textbooks worldwide. He received the Fulbright Research Award, NSF Research Initiation Grant, ASEE Terman Award, Int. Neural Network Soc. Gabor Award, U.K. Inst Measurement & Control Honeywell Field Engineering Medal, IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Neural Networks Pioneer Award, AIAA Intelligent Systems Award. Received Outstanding Service Award from Dallas IEEE Section, selected as Engineer of the year by Ft. Worth IEEE Section. Was listed in Ft. Worth Business Press Top 200 Leaders in Manufacturing. Texas Regents Outstanding Teaching Award 2013. He is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Nanjing University of Science & Technology and Project 111 Professor at Northeastern University in Shenyang, China. Founding Member of the Board of Governors of the Mediterranean Control Association.

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Kolaric, P., Chen, C., Dalal, A. et al. Consensus controller for multi-UAV navigation. Control Theory Technol. 16, 110–121 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11768-018-8013-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11768-018-8013-5

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