Coordinated Heterogeneous UAVs for Trajectory Tracking and Irregular Payload Transportation Using Sliding Mode Control

Heterogeneous UAVs offer unique advantages in multi-agent systems due to their varying capabilities including (a) different payload capacities, (b) maneuverability, and (c) flight endurance. These properties made them particularly well suited for complex operations such as lifting and transporting irregularly shaped payloads with even mass distribution. Homogeneous UAV systems may face limitations. By utilizing these capabilities, heterogeneous UAVs enable efficient resource utilization, adaptability to dynamic conditions, and precise coordination for challenging missions. This paper presents a distributed sliding mode control (DSMC) strategy, designed to achieve stable trajectory tracking and synchronized irregular-shaped payload lifting by heterogeneous UAVs. The proposed approach ensures maintaining stability throughout the operation. The framework dynamically adjusts roll, pitch, and yaw angles to achieve precise payload lifting, while maintaining stability during transportation. Additionally, we conduct a comparative analysis between DSMC and PID controller, evaluating their performance in terms of trajectory tracking accuracy, payload stability, and safety distance between the drones. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in minimizing trajectory tracking errors, achieving smooth payload transportation, and ensuring robust performance. The findings highlight the potential of DSMC as a reliable control strategy for multi-UAV coordination in complex payload transportation scenarios.