Cooperative Control for Air–Ground Systems via Bidirectional Signal Connection in Complex Environment

In this study, a cooperative control methodology is developed for an air–ground system under a complicated environment. The air–ground system consists of a car-like mobile robot (CLMR) with road bumps and a quadrotor with gust winds. For the quadrotor, a cooperative integral sliding-mode controller is suggested to achieve bidirectional signal connection. A fixed-time extended state observer (ESO) is used to assess the external disruptions brought on by gust winds. For the CLMR, a double closed-loop tracking control approach is utilized to track the trajectory. An outer loop kinematics controller generates desired velocities. An inner loop nonlinear ESO estimates velocities and compensates for road bumps. Based on the Lyapunov method, stability analyses are given for the air–ground systems. Experimental results verify that the proposed approach for the air–ground system is effective.