Nonlinear tight formation control of multiple UAVs based on model predictive control

作     者：Ruiping Zheng Yongxi Lyu Ruiping Zheng;Yongxi Lyu

作者机构：School of AutomationNorthwestern Polytechnical UniversityXi'an 710129China Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Flight Control and Simulation TechnologyXi'an 710129China 

出 版 物：《Defence Technology（防务技术）》 (Defence Technology)

年 卷 期：2023年第25卷第7期

页      面：69-75页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 081105[工学-导航、制导与控制] 082503[工学-航空宇航制造工程] 0825[工学-航空宇航科学与技术] 0811[工学-控制科学与工程] 

基　　金：funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62173277 and 61573286) the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2022JM-011) the Aeronautical Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 201905053004) the Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Flight Control and Simulation Technology 

主　　题：Unmanned aerial vehicles Tight formation Wake vortex model Model predictive control 

摘      要：A tight formation of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) has many advantages, such as fuel saving and deceiving enemy radar during battlefield entry. As a result, research on UAVs in close formation has received much attention, and the controller design for formation holding has become a popular research topic in the control field. However, there are many unknown disturbances in tight formation, and the tail aircraft is disturbed by the wake. This paper establishes a mathematical model of wake vortices for tail aircraft that considers uncertainty and strong interference. Two UAVs are simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamics software, followed by the design of a semiphysical simulation model predictive control(MPC) scheme that suppresses uncertainty and interference sufficiently to enable the tail aircraft to accurately track the lead aircraft and maintain a stable, tight formation. The tight formation controller is verified by numerical simulation and semiphysical simulation. The results show that the designed controller has an excellent control effect in the case of disturbance caused by the wake vortex.