<i>Path-Dependent</i> Constrained Formation for a Quadrotor Team

Constrained formation problems, for quadrotors and other systems, have been examined in various works in the past decade. Nevertheless, most works only consider constant or time-varying constraint functions, to be best of our knowledge. In this work, we examine path-dependent constraint requirements during formation tracking operations by a team of quadrotors, where the constraints are functions on path parameters. Universal barrier functions are used to deal with path-dependent constraint requirements, including constraints on distances with desired paths and inter-vehicle distances. Furthermore, unknown quadrotor’s mass, inertia, and disturbances are addressed using an adaptive robust formation algorithm. The newly proposed path-dependent constrained formation architecture can ensure formation tracking errors converge exponentially to small neighborhoods near the equilibrium, with all path-dependent constraint requirements met. At the end, a simulation study further illustrates the proposed scheme and demonstrates its efficacy.