Distributed Consensus Control for Multi-UAV Systems with Uncertain Gains Under Gust Winds

AbstractIn this paper, a distributed consensus control strategy is introduced for a multi-UAV system with uncertain gains. A multi-UAV system is developed from unmanned aerial vehicles with gust winds over directed communication topology. The distributed consensus control strategy mainly consists a nonlinear sliding mode observer and distributed consensus controller. The nonlinear sliding mode observer is designed with a nonlinear error feedback function to estimate external disturbances from gust winds. Based on nonlinear Nussbaum functions and sliding mode manifolds, the distributed consensus controller is proposed to achieve consensus performance in the multi-UAV system with uncertain gains. Stability of the multi-UAV system is analyzed by Lyapunov methods for the distributed consensus control strategy. Effectiveness of the distributed consensus control strategy is shown with simulation results on a multi-UAV system of six UAVs under directed communication topology.KeywordsMulti-UAV systemDistributed consensus controlSliding mode observer (SMO)Directed communication topologyGust winds