Motion Coordination for VTOL Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Attitude Synchronisation and Formation Control

191 Pages·2013·3.65 MB·English

by  Abdelkader Abdessameud

Advances in Industrial Control
Forfurthervolumes:
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Abdelkader Abdessameud (cid:2) Abdelhamid Tayebi
Motion
Coordination for
VTOL Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles
Attitude Synchronisation and Formation
Control
AbdelkaderAbdessameud AbdelhamidTayebi
DeptofElectr.&ComputerEngineering DepartmentofElectricalEngineering
TheUniversityofWesternOntario LakeheadUniversity
London,Canada ThunderBay,Canada
ISSN1430-9491 ISSN2193-1577(electronic)
AdvancesinIndustrialControl
ISBN978-1-4471-5093-0 ISBN978-1-4471-5094-7(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-1-4471-5094-7
SpringerLondonHeidelbergNewYorkDordrecht
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013940424
©Springer-VerlagLondon2013
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Series Editors’ Foreword
The series Advances in Industrial Control aims to report and encourage technol-
ogy transfer in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology
has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. New theory, new controllers,
actuators, sensors, new industrial processes, computer methods, new applications,
newphilosophies...,newchallenges.Muchofthisdevelopmentworkresidesinin-
dustrial reports, feasibility study papers and the reports of advanced collaborative
projects.Theseriesoffersanopportunityforresearcherstopresentanextendedex-
position of such new work in all aspects of industrial control for wider and rapid
dissemination.
Over the last decade there has been continuing research interest in the control
ofunmannedvehiclesofdifferenttypesandindifferentenvironments.Thiscanbe
seen in the growing accumulation of titles in the Advances in Industrial Control
monograph series in which at least one such new title appears on a more-or-less
yearlybasis.Theserieslistcurrentlyincludesthefollowingtitles:
• Spacecraft Navigation and Guidance by Maxwell Noton (ISBN 978-3-540-
76248-5,1998);
• Modelling and Control of Mini-Flying Machines by Pedro Castillo, Rogelio
LozanoandAlejandroE.Dzul(ISBN978-1-85233-957-9,2005);and
• Fault-tolerant Flight Control and Guidance Systems by Guillaume J.J. Ducard
(ISBN978-1-84882-560-4,2009);
• Control of Ships and Underwater Vehicles by Khac Duc Do and Jie Pan (ISBN
978-1-84882-729-5,2009);
• UnmannedRotorcraftSystemsbyGuoweiCai,BenM.ChenandTongHengLee
(ISBN978-0-85729-634-4,2011);and
• Quad Rotorcraft Control by Luis R. García Carrillo, Alejandro E. Dzul López,
RogelioLozanoandClaudePégard(ISBN978-1-4471-4398-7,2012).
The Series Editors are also aware that new series monographs on the control
ofindividualunmannedvehiclesarecurrentlyinpreparationandsocanconfidently
saythatinterestinthisfieldcontinuestogrow.Drivenbynewpotentialapplications,
alogicalextensionofthecontrolofasingleunmannedvehicleisformationcontrol
vii
viii SeriesEditors’Foreword
of several such vehicles. Looking at activities in subsea, terrestrial, aerospace and
deep-spaceenvironments,itisfairlyeasytofindapplicationswhereformationcon-
trol would be a key requirement. Some typical examples are fleets of marine ves-
selsinconvoyformation,marinevesselstravellingwhilstrefuellingistakingplace,
automotive vehicles travelling in formation across terrestrial terrain—the flocking
behaviourofvehiclesonmotorwayscouldevenberegardedasaformation,inspec-
tionaerialvehiclestravellinginformationfromonelocationtoanother,satellitesin
spacemovinginformationandwithcommonorientation,andsoon.
With such possible applications, it is not surprising that there is research activ-
ityinthedifferenttheoreticalaspectsofcontrolforformationsofunmannedvehi-
cles. Howeverthere appear to be few monographs in this field and the Series Edi-
tors are pleased to add the monograph Motion Coordinationfor VTOL Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles: Attitude Synchronization and Formation Control by Abdelkader
AbdessameudandAbdelhamidTayebitotheAdvancesinIndustrialControlseries.
In this work, the authors take a general rigid-structure-modelling approach adapt-
abletounmannedvehicleslikesatellites,andvarioustypesofverticaltake-offand
landingunmannedvehiclessuchasquad-rotorcraftandducted-fanaerialvehicles.
They seek solutions to two control problems: attitude synchronisation, typically a
satellite-orientationproblemandformation-positioncontrol.Theauthorsthenpro-
ceedtoaddtotheproblemdescriptionpracticalconstraintsarisingfromincomplete
informationandcommunicationdelays,whichareoftendestabilizinginrealappli-
cationscenarios,andtodeviseappropriatecontrolsolutions.
Theauthorshavebeenresearchingthisfieldforsometimeandarepresentinga
thorough and complete synthesis of their research work in this monograph. A lit-
tle background on the authors may interest the reader. Abdelkader Abdessameud
received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of
WesternOntario,CanadaandatthetimeofwritingisaPost-DoctoralResearchFel-
lowintheDepartmentofElectricalandComputerEngineeringattheUniversityof
Western Ontario, Canada. His research interests lie in the theory and applications
ofnonlinearcontrol.AbdelhamidTayebiispresentlyaProfessorintheDepartment
of Electrical Engineering at Lakehead University, Canada. He is the founder and
DirectoroftheAutomaticControlLaboratoryatLakeheadUniversity.Hisresearch
interests are mainly related to linear and nonlinear control theory including adap-
tivecontrol,robustcontrolanditerativelearningcontrol,withapplicationstorobot
manipulatorsandaerialvehicles.
The Editors welcome this monograph into the Advances in Industrial Control
seriesandfeelitwillappealtoresearchersandindustrialengineersintheaerospace
fields.Themonographshouldalsobeofinteresttopractitionersofnonlinearcontrol
theoryanditsapplications.
IndustrialControlCentre, M.J.Grimble
Glasgow,Scotland,UK M.A.Johnson
Preface
Thebookaddressesthecoordinatedmotioncontrolproblemofateamofunmanned
aerialvehicles(UAVs).Theproblemisparticularlychallengingduetothecomplex
nonlineardynamicsgoverningthistypeofsystems,whichareoftenunderactuated.
Assuch,coordinatedcontrolschemesdevelopedforlinearmulti-agentsystemscan-
not be directly applied to this type of systems. This has motivated our research in
thisareainthepastfewyears.Inparticular,wewereinterestedintheattitudesyn-
chronizationproblemofmultiplerigid-bodysystemsandtheformationcontrolofa
classofUAVswithverticaltake-offandlandingcapabilities,referredtoasVTOL
UAVsforshort.
Theattitudesynchronizationproblemisgenerallyconsideredindeepspaceap-
plications where replacing traditionally large and complex spacecraft with clus-
ters of simpler micro-satellites was shown to present several advantagesregarding
mission performance and cost. In the majority of the current research relevant to
spacecraft attitudesynchronization,it is assumed that the state variables are avail-
ableforfeedback.Designingefficientcontrollerswithaminimumnumberofmea-
suredstatevariablesisacommontheoreticalchallengeyetwithimportantpractical
implications. It is of a great interest to design controllers that do not involve the
measurements of some crucial variables that require complex, expensive, and/or
prone-to-failuresensors.Fromthisperspective,thedesignofattitudesynchroniza-
tion schemes without velocity measurements stands out as an important and chal-
lengingproblem.
VTOLUAVsincludeseveraltypesofthrustpropelledaircraftsuchashelicopters,
quadrotor,andductedfanvehicles.Theyconstituteanimportantclassofflyingsys-
tems due to their ability to hover and maneuver in confined or restricted environ-
ments.Thismakesthemsuitableforabroadrangeofapplicationsrequiringstation-
aryflightssuchassurveillance,searchandrescuemissions,andmonuments/bridge
inspection.Thecoordinatedcontrolofthisclassofunderactuatedmechanicalsys-
temsisquitechallenging,especially,whensomestatevariablesarenotavailablefor
feedback.
Informationexchangebetweenaircraftinvolvedintheformationplaysanimpor-
tantroleinachievingasuccessfulmotioncoordination.Thisinformationexchange
ix
x Preface
is generally subject to delays that are inherent in communicationsystems. The ef-
fectsofcommunicationdelaysinlinearmulti-agentsystems,withfirstandsecond
orderdynamics,havebeendiscussedinmanyinterestingresearchpapers.Theap-
plication of these results to the attitude synchronization of spacecraft is hampered
by the complex nonlinear attitude dynamics of a rotating rigid body. In addition,
theunderactuatednatureofVTOLUAVsintroducesseveralcontroldesigndifficul-
ties. Moreover, in most of the research dealing with multi-agent systems, delayed
communicationisonlyconsideredinthefullstateinformationcase.Thiswasamo-
tivating factor for the development of new approaches that handle communication
delays in the case where only part of the system state variables are available for
feedback.
Our objective in writing this research monograph is to summarize our recent
developmentsrelatedtocoordinatedcontrolproblems.Differentcontroldesignap-
proachesfortheattitudesynchronizationproblemarepresented.Thesynchroniza-
tionschemesrequireonlyattitudemeasurementsandtheneighbor-to-neighborin-
formationexchange,whichcanbedelayed.Inaddition,byintegratingnewcontrol
designtechniqueswithsomeconceptsfrommulti-agentsystems,anewtheoretical
frameworkisdevelopedforthemotioncoordinationofVTOLUAVs.
Thebookisprimarilyintendedtoresearchersandengineersfromrobotics,con-
trol engineering, and aerospace communities. It also serves as a complementary
readingforgraduatestudentspursuingresearchinthesefields.
London,Ontario,Canada AbdelkaderAbdessameud
ThunderBay,Ontario,Canada AbdelhamidTayebi
Acknowledgements
Weareindebtedtoallthosewhocontributedtotheconcretizationofthisbookand
inparticulartotheNationalSciencesandEngineeringResearchCouncil(NSERC)
ofCanadaforfinancialsupport.WewouldliketothankIliaPolushinandAndrew
Robertsforthefruitfultechnicaldiscussions.WewouldalsoliketothankMichael
Johnson(JointEditor,AICSpringer)andOliverJackson(Editor,Springer)fortheir
support and guidance during the preparation of this manuscript. In addition, ac-
knowledgment is given to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
(IEEE)andElsevierforgrantinguspermissionstoreproducesomeofthematerial
wepreviouslyreportedinthepaperslistedbelow.
AbdessameudA,TayebiA(2008)Attitudesynchronizationofaspacecraftforma-
tionwithoutvelocitymeasurement.In:Proceedingsofthe47thIEEEConference
onDecisionandControl,pp.3719–3724,©2008IEEE.
AbdessameudA,TayebiA(2009)Attitudesynchronizationofagroupofspace-
craft without velocity measurements. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control
54(11):2642–2648,©2009IEEE.
Abdessameud A, Tayebi A (2009) On the coordinated attitude alignment
of a group of spacecraft without velocity measurements. In: Proceedings of
the 48th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 1476–1481, ©2009
IEEE.
Abdessameud A, Tayebi A (2009) Formation control of VTOL UAVs. In: Pro-
ceedingsofthe48thConferenceonDecisionandControl,pp.3454–3459,©2009
IEEE.
Abdessameud A, Tayebi A (2010) Formation control of VTOL UAVs without
linear-velocitymeasurements.In:ProceedingsoftheAmericanControlConfer-
ence,pp.2107–2112,©2010IEEE.
AbdessameudA,TayebiA(2010)FormationstabilizationofVTOLUAVssub-
ject to communication delays. In: Proceedings of the 49th Conference on Deci-
sionandControl,pp.4547–4552,©2010IEEE.
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