Aerial Load Transportation with Multiple Quadrotors Based on a Kinematic Controller and a Neural SMC Dynamic Compensation

A novel formation control to transport a cable-suspended payload with two quadrotors is presented. The control structure is based on a layered scheme combining a kinematic null-space based controller and a neural sliding mode controller. The null-space controller is designed to generate velocity references to the quadrotors in the formation, whereas the neural sliding mode controller receives such reference velocities and performs a dynamic compensation for possible parametric uncertainties as well as for the dynamic perturbations caused by the load attached to the quadrotors. The stability of the closed-loop control system thus implemented is also proven with basis on the theory of Lyapunov. Very detailed dynamic models for the quadrotors, the flexible cables, and the payload are included in a highly realistic scenario. To close the work, numerical simulations are presented, whose results demonstrate a good performance of the proposed controller.

[1]  Sergei Lupashin,et al.  The Flight Assembled Architecture installation: Cooperative construction with flying machines , 2014, IEEE Control Systems.

[2]  Jooyoung Park,et al.  Universal Approximation Using Radial-Basis-Function Networks , 1991, Neural Computation.

[3]  Yung C. Shin,et al.  Radial basis function neural network for approximation and estimation of nonlinear stochastic dynamic systems , 1994, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks.

[4]  Ruslan Kirichek,et al.  Unmanned aerial system–assisted wilderness search and rescue mission , 2019, Int. J. Distributed Sens. Networks.

[5]  Yu Feng,et al.  Adaptive tracking control of underactuated quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles via backstepping , 2010, Proceedings of the 2010 American Control Conference.

[6]  Claudio Rosales,et al.  Null-space-based path-following control for cooperative payload transport using multiple rotorcraft UAVs , 2018, 2018 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[7]  Ricardo Carelli,et al.  A Novel Null-Space-Based UAV Trajectory Tracking Controller With Collision Avoidance , 2017, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[8]  Jianbin Qiu,et al.  Observer-Based Fuzzy Adaptive Event-Triggered Control for Pure-Feedback Nonlinear Systems With Prescribed Performance , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems.

[9]  Ricardo O. Carelli,et al.  Adaptive neural sliding mode compensator for a class of nonlinear systems with unmodeled uncertainties , 2013, Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell..

[10]  Manuel Graña,et al.  Online fuzzy modulated adaptive PD control for cooperative aerial transportation of deformable linear objects , 2016, Integr. Comput. Aided Eng..

[11]  Mário Sarcinelli Filho,et al.  A Survey on Load Transportation Using Multirotor UAVs , 2019, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems.

[12]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  Quadrotor Kinematics and Dynamics , 2015 .

[13]  Ali Magdi Sayed Soliman,et al.  The design of a rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles–payload drop mechanism for fire-fighting services using fire-extinguishing balls , 2019, SN Applied Sciences.

[14]  Guofan Wu,et al.  Differential-flatness and control of quadrotor(s) with a payload suspended through flexible cable(s) , 2017, 2018 Indian Control Conference (ICC).

[15]  Wanderley Cardoso Celeste,et al.  An adaptive dynamic controller for autonomous mobile robot trajectory tracking , 2008 .

[16]  Taeyoung Lee,et al.  Geometric Control of Quadrotor UAVs Transporting a Cable-Suspended Rigid Body , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

[17]  Um Rao Mogili,et al.  Review on Application of Drone Systems in Precision Agriculture , 2018 .

[18]  Ricardo Carelli,et al.  Adaptive dynamic control of a quadrotor for trajectory tracking , 2017, 2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[19]  Dongbing Gu,et al.  Using iterative LQR to control two quadrotors transporting a cable-suspended load , 2017 .

[20]  Ricardo Carelli,et al.  Multi-objective control for cooperative payload transport with rotorcraft UAVs. , 2018, ISA transactions.

[21]  Thor I. Fossen,et al.  Passivity-based Formation Control for UAVs with a Suspended Load , 2017 .

[22]  Evsen Yanmaz,et al.  Survey on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Networks for Civil Applications: A Communications Viewpoint , 2016, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials.

[23]  Raziyeh Babaie,et al.  Robust optimal motion planning approach to cooperative grasping and transporting using multiple UAVs based on SDRE , 2017 .

[24]  George Cybenko,et al.  Approximation by superpositions of a sigmoidal function , 1992, Math. Control. Signals Syst..

[25]  Davide Scaramuzza,et al.  Fast Trajectory Optimization for Agile Quadrotor Maneuvers with a Cable-Suspended Payload , 2017, Robotics: Science and Systems.

[26]  Mohsen Guizani,et al.  Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): A Survey on Civil Applications and Key Research Challenges , 2018, IEEE Access.

[27]  Rafael Fierro,et al.  Cable-suspended load lifting by a quadrotor UAV: hybrid model, trajectory generation, and control , 2017, Auton. Robots.

[28]  Peter Nielsen,et al.  Zoning a Service Area of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Package Delivery Services , 2019, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[29]  Jianbin Qiu,et al.  Adaptive Fuzzy Control for Nontriangular Structural Stochastic Switched Nonlinear Systems With Full State Constraints , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems.

[30]  Rogelio Lozano,et al.  Swing-attenuation for a quadrotor transporting a cable-suspended payload. , 2017, ISA transactions.

[31]  Mario Sarcinelli-Filho,et al.  Modelling and control of a PVTOL quadrotor carrying a suspended load , 2015, 2015 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[32]  Hamid Reza Karimi,et al.  A Novel Finite-Time Control for Nonstrict Feedback Saturated Nonlinear Systems With Tracking Error Constraint , 2021, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems.

[33]  Ricardo Carelli,et al.  Neural network-based compensation control of mobile robots with partially known structure , 2012 .

[34]  Ricardo Carelli,et al.  A trajectory tracking and 3D positioning controller for the AR.Drone quadrotor , 2014, 2014 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[35]  Alexandre Santos Brandao,et al.  Indoor low-cost localization system for controlling aerial robots , 2017 .

[36]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  The GRASP Multiple Micro-UAV Testbed , 2010, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[37]  Dennis S. Bernstein,et al.  Adaptive control of a quadrotor UAV transporting a cable-suspended load with unknown mass , 2014, 53rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[38]  Dean Nachman,et al.  The Promising Future of Drones in Prehospital Medical Care and its Application to Battlefield Medicine. , 2019, The journal of trauma and acute care surgery.