Autopilot-based Nonlinear UAV Formation Controller with Extremum-Seeking

In this paper, we consider the problem of designing nonlinear robust formation controllers on a team of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) using off-the-shelf autopilots. Two nonlinear robust formation control algorithms are presented. The first controller requires knowledge of the leader’s velocity and acceleration. The second controller, on the other hand, does not have such a requirement. Additionally, the desired trajectory for the follower UAV is generated by a perturbation-based extremum-seeking (ES) controller. With these algorithms, two formation flight objectives have been achieved: (i) a reduction of communication overhead, and (ii) a maximum energy saving mission flight. Numerical simulations validate the performance of the proposed control methodology.