The control problem for a group of quadrocopters while moving along a given curve

Abstract

The paper considers the problem of feedback control for a group of several quadrocopters. The main goal is to transfer this group from a given initial position to a given target position for a fixed period of time, provided that at each intermediate time instant the quadrocopters must be in a small neighborhood of a fixed smooth curve in space. A centralized group control scheme is used. The main difficulty here is the complex, nonlinear mathematical model, describing the movement of each individual aircraft. It is necessary to develop computationally efficient algorithms for approximate search for feedback control, which allow to cope simultaneously with nonlinear dynamics, point-to-point constraints on control parameters, as well as state constraints arising in connection with group motion (in particular, due to the requirements of pairwise collision avoidance). Modifications of ellipsoidal calculus methods are used here to construct such algorithms.