Backstepping-based Sliding Mode Control for Multi-Quadrotor UAV Formation

A formation control method based on the backstepping and Sliding Mode Control (SMC) is proposed for quadrotors in this paper. The quadrotor, characterized by under-actuation, strong coupling, and nonlinearity, demands a highly flexible and robust control system to adapt to noise and external disturbance during flight. Firstly, without considering disturbance, the motion analysis of a quadrotor is conducted based on the Newton-Euler method, and its dynamic model is established. Next, a trajectory tracking controller combining the backstepping method and sliding mode control is designed to achieve stable single-UAV tracking control. Then, a multi-UAV formation controller based on sliding mode control is developed. Lyapunov Stability Theorem is used to confirm the stability of the system. Finally, numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. The results indicate that the controllers can track typical trajectories well.