Cooperative Control of Multiple Quadrotors for Transporting a Common Payload

This paper investigates the problem of controlling a team of Quadrotors that cooperatively transport a common payload. The main contribution of this study is to propose a cooperative control algorithm based on a decentralized algorithm. This strategy is comprised of two main steps: the first one is calculating the basic control vectors for each Quadrotor using Moore–Penrose theory aiming at cooperative transport of an object and second one is combining these vectors with individual control vectors, which are obtained from a closed-loop non-linear robust controller. In this regard, a nonlinear robust controller is designed based on Second Order Sliding Mode (SOSMC) approach using Extended Kalman-Bucy Filter (EKBF) to estimate the unmeasured states which is capable of facing external disturbances. The distinctive features of this approach include robustness against model uncertainties along with high flexibility in designing the control parameters to have an optimal solution for the nonlinear dynamic of the system. Design of the controller is based on Lyapunov laws which can provide the stability of the end-effector during the tracking of the desired trajectory. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for the cooperative Quadrotors to transport a common payload in various maneuvers.