Consensus-based cooperative control for geometric configuration of UAVs flying in formation

In this paper, we study cooperative control problems with a multi-UAV system expressed as a first-order system. Specifically, we describe a problem that cooperatively controlled UAVs change geometric configuration between multiple UAVs while the UAVs are flying in formation. In other words, each of the UAVs must intensionally change relative position between the UAV and the leader while the UAVs are cooperatively controlled. We propose a control algorithm to change geometric configuration among the UAVs arbitrarily while the cooperatively controlled UAVs are flying in formation. The control algorithm is based on a consensus algorithm. A leader-follower structure is also applied to provide the UAVs with commands from a leader. The control algorithm has an advantage in finding a controller gain to stabilize the multi-UAV system. In addition, the convergence speed does not depend on the network structure of the system. Finally, the proposed approach is validated by some simulations.