Distributed Localization and Control of Quadrotor UAVs Using Ultra-Wideband Sensors

In this paper, we propose a distributed control algorithm for Quadrotor UAVs. The main objective is to design practically implementable distributed hierarchical control for coordinated formation flying of UAVs. Based on the use of Ultra-Wideband sensors for localization, the experimental results using a number of nano Crazyflie quadrotors are also reported in the paper by implementing a simplified hierarchical control strategy. The experimental system setup and the basic formation flying control results using Ultra-Wideband sensors pave the way for the full implementation of the proposed distributed hierarchical control algorithms in the future work. The Crazyflie 2.0 quadrotor UAVs produced by Bitcraze are adopted in experiments. The conducted research provides a useful design guideline for applications of UAVs swarms in real situations.