Time-delay Control of a Multi-Rotor VTOL Multi-Agent System Towards Transport Operations

Abstract

The present work deals with a consensus control for a multi-agent system composed by a mini Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) rotorcrafts by means of a controller based on time-delay parametrization. The VTOL system modeling is presented using the quaternion parametrization to develop the attitude-stabilizing law of the aerial robots. The vehicle position dynamics are extended to the multi-agent case where a time-delayed PID control is designed in order to achieve general consensus in terms of formation control of the system. Finally, a detailed simulation study is presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, where it also considered a collective interaction.