Control and tracking of roll dynamics of UAVs in close formation flight

The formation flight has many significant advantages over single vehicle flight. The control and tracking issues of lateral roll dynamics of two UAVs with leader-follower pattern is discussed in this paper. The objectives of this work is to develop the robust control technology using H_∞ techniques to withstand the lateral aero-coefficient-perturbed conditions in the control and tracking of two aerodynamically coupled UAVs in close formation flight. The work focuses on the flight control and tracking of roll dynamics and its decoupling from yaw dynamics. The follower lateral state space data modified by the upwash vortex aerodynamic effect is incorporated during the design phase of H_∞ controllers. The roll dynamics of leader UAV is tracked by the follower under perturbed conditions using H_∞ controller within 0.05 degree error.