Terminal Sliding Mode Control (TSMC) based Cooperative Load Transportation using Multiple Drones

Objective of this paper is to design a suitable control algorithm for cooperative transportation of an object using multiple drones based on decentralized control technique. A terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) based algorithm for motion tracking of a system of multiple Quad-rotor type Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is proposed. TSMC is a novel class of sliding mode control giving rise to a finite time convergence of reduced order dynamics, delivering fast response, high precision, and strong robustness. A TSMC based robust cooperative control strategy is proposed for the system with multiple drones and individual control vectors are defined for controlling the combined system in presence of wind disturbances. The finite time convergence of control laws are proved using homogeneous Lyapunov function. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superior performance over conventional sliding mode-based technique for the cooperative quad rotors to transport a common payload.

I. Introduction

The word ‘drone’ is very popular now a days. They are being used in various technological sectors. Recently they are being considered as future load transporting vehicles. Various MNC’s are already testing delivery using drones. But for large scale load transportation multiple drones are required and there lies the importance of cooperative control of drones. Cooperative control between robots, robot and human are already very popular. Cooperative and decentralized controlling techniques for drones are discussed in the works [1],[7],[8],[9].