Application of ℒ1 Adaptive Controller for the Design of a Novel Decentralized Leader Follower Formation Algorithm

Abstract

A novel ℒ1 adaptive based control, augmenting a fixed gain Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control for leader-follower based decentralized formation flying is investigated. In particular, we propose this algorithm to maintain the triangle formation of three micro air vehicles. This work assumes minimal critical flight information exchange among the vehicles. The designed formation control algorithm generates normal and tangential acceleration commands which can be accurately tracked by the inner loop of the followers autopilot. The proposed controller having a combination of both adaptive control and a fixed gain control greatly enhances the tracking performance of the controller. To illustrate our algorithm, simulations results using a fixed wing MAV model are presented.