Robust Formation Control of Quadrotor UAVs: A Fully-Actuated Control Approach

In this work, a fully actuated system (FAS) control scheme for the quadrotor UAV formation is designed. Deploying the FAS techniques, two controllers are designed for position and angle tracking so that the UAV formation is driven along the given trajectory with enhanced internal stability. Considering the scenario where the environment disturbances and actuator faults affect UAV systems, an extended state observer (ESO) is designed to estimate the uncertainty. Subsequently, the effect of the fault and uncertainty is compensated in the FAS controller to enhance the accuracy. As a result, the proposed formation coordination controller ensures that the UAV team completes the desired flight mission. According to the simulation results, the proposed method is more accurate and robust against the disturbance and fault with the accurate estimation compared with traditional methods.