Reading Summary

Design of Formation Flight Control System for Team of Quadrotors using Consensus
Algorithm
1. Introduction
Systems of cooperating multi-agent have great potential to create breakthroughs in many applications.
Many control algorithms have been proposed and developed for various difficult applications using
centralized cooperating multi-agent framework. But the implementation of the framework is not
necessarily as feasible as developing its algorithms due to many limitations, especially
communication limitations regarding range, capacity, and power. These limitations motivate many
researchers to search and to develop a distributed cooperative control framework (as opposed to the
preceding centralized framework), where control commands are decided and are executed locally by
each individual agent based on communication results with nearest neighbors. This new control
framework eliminates the requirement for all agents to stay connected to the network uninterruptedly,
which is more common in real case.
One of many methods that are based on distributed control framework is consensus method. To
achieve a common objective cooperatively, all agents in the team are required to agree on key
information that associates each agents states to their common objective. This key information is
compromised among agents until it converges to a certain value or a certain range, i.e. a consensus is
achieved. Communication topology in a cooperating multi-agent system determines how rapid all
team members achieve consensus. Challenge in a system of cooperating multi-agent is that agent can
not always communicate with all other agents in the team. This is very common in real world
situation where communication is delayed, noisy, and time-varying in topology. The consensus
method is a control method for multi-agent systems that ensures all required conditions for consensus
are fulfilled. A number of cooperative control schemes such as leader-follower scheme, virtual leader
scheme, etc., are specialized forms consensus control method.
Communication topologies that lead to consensus can be maintained by having a team of mobile
agents, such as team of UAVs, fly in formation. Formation flight of a team of UAVs required each
team member to navigate in coordination with the rest of the team. Each UAV needs to be
autonomous in deciding which maneuver it must execute to fulfill its immediate objectives during
flight.
Rotorcrafts have the capability to perform vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) maneuver, enabling
them to do difficult tasks that are inaccessible to fixed-wing aircrafts. Multiple rotor rotorcrafts use
more than one rotor as propulsion device. Higher number of rotor means lower rotor speed for the
same payload. And lower rotor speed means decreased noise, a preferable consequence for using
multiple rotor rotorcrafts.
Quadrotor is a variant of rotorcraft (rotary-wing aircraft) that uses four rotors as propulsion device.
Configurations of how the four rotors are attached to the main body is various among this variant but
the most common ones are the plus (+) configuration, where each rotor is on the edge of rotorcrafts
longitudinal and lateral axes, and the cross () configuration, where rotors placement is laterally
symmetric but they are not on its longitudinal nor on its lateral axes. These symmetric 4-rotor
configurations provide an inherent stability in quadrotor controlling mechanism with the least number
of rotors. This characteristic makes quadrotor the most preferable choice for many applications.
2. Problem scope
This research covers several aspects that must be taken into account and be dealt with. Interaction
topology must be ensured to be the ones that make consensus condition possible. Then, control
systems on both team level and individual level must be able to ensure the multi-agent system achieve
their objectives.
On each level, control system characteristics must be investigated regarding stability, robustness, and
optimality.
2.1. Analysis on interaction topology among agents
Control algorithms for multi-agent systems using consensus method were investigated and formulated
in Ren & Beard [1]. The proposed algorithms were formulated, assuming all agents of the system
having simple dynamics on the team level: single-integrator dynamics and double-integrator
dynamics.
Interaction topology needs to be investigated, for whether it will give a converging result on teams
coordination states or not, and for conditions that lead to those results. Analysis on communication
topology is conducted by graph representation and its corresponding Laplacian matrix. Hence, teams
states convergence is associated with the stability of a dynamic system represented by the Laplacian
matrix. Necessary conditions for stability or convergence can be derived as one usually does with a
linear system.
Two types of interaction topology were investigated: Time-invariant topology, and time-variant
topology. For time-invariant topology, Laplacian matrix is considered constant. On the other hand,
time-variant topology requires a consideration that Laplacian matrix is a function of time.
2.2. Analysis on control system
Having all the necessary conditions for convergence established, the control system that will drive the
multi-agent system to those conditions needs to be developed. Analysis on control system is divided
into two levels: team level and individual level control systems. By team level control system,
consensus condition is directed to fulfill team level objectives such as rendezvous, target tracking,
formation keeping, collision and obstacle avoidance. Individual level control system is the one that
works on each vehicle, directing vehicles stable condition to fulfill individual objectives such as
attitude hold, altitude hold, speed hold, and heading hold, while ensuring each vehicle to perform
necessary maneuver required by the team level control system. On top of that, both team level and
individual level control systems are required to meet certain objectives: stability, robustness, and
optimality.
Meanwhile, analysis on individual level control system requires an investigation of the each vehicles
dynamics. A model of each vehicles dynamic needs to be developed except if the multi-agent system
uses identical vehicles in the team, where only one model will be needed. The model will also serve
as test bed for the control systems until it is safe enough to conduct a flight test.
References