关键词: 无人机, 编队控制, 矢量场, 不确定性及干扰估计器, 地面效应, 鲁棒控制

Abstract:

When multi-UAV formation flies through narrow corridors， UAVs will be influenced by external disturbances such as ground effect and downwash to result in out of control and crash of the vehicles and other security risks. To solve this problem， a safe and robust algorithm based on the vector field and the Uncertainty and Disturbance Estimator （UDE） is proposed by considering upper-formation planning and low-level control simultaneously. At the formation planning level， a vector field-based formation control method is designed to ensure collision avoidance. Meanwhile， due to the space constraint and smaller distance between UAVs， UAVs are more severely affected by ground effect， downwash between UAVs and other wind disturbances during the passage. These external disturbances lead to safety risks such as loss of control and crashes. To address this issue， an Uncertainty and Disturbance Estimator-based （UDE-based） controller is designed to improve the stability and robustness of UAVs’ low-level control. Finally， the proposed algorithms are verified on the simulation platform， and the performance of the UAVs formation in different sizes of narrow corridors is evaluated.

Key words: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), formation control, vector field, uncertainty and disturbance estimator, ground effect, robust control