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Time-optimal control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles with human control input

Tao Han (Hubei Normal University, Huangshi, China)
Bo Xiao (Hubei Normal University, Huangshi, China)
Xi-Sheng Zhan (College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi, China)
Jie Wu (College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi, China)
Hongling Gao (College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi, China)

International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics

ISSN: 1756-378X

Article publication date: 8 January 2019

Issue publication date: 22 February 2019

155

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate time-optimal control problems for multiple unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems to achieve predefined flying shape.

Design/methodology/approach

Two time-optimal protocols are proposed for the situations with or without human control input, respectively. Then, Pontryagin’s minimum principle approach is applied to deal with the time-optimal control problems for UAV systems, where the cost function, the initial and terminal conditions are given in advance. Moreover, necessary conditions are derived to ensure that the given performance index is optimal.

Findings

The effectiveness of the obtained time-optimal control protocols is verified by two contrastive numerical simulation examples. Consequently, the proposed protocols can successfully achieve the prescribed flying shape.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a solution to solve the time-optimal control problems for multiple UAV systems to achieve predefined flying shape.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 61602163 and 61471163, the Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hubei Province under Grant No. 2017CFA034, the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province under 2016CFC735. The Hubei Education Department Science and Technology Research Program for young talents under Grant No. Q20182503.

Citation

Han, T., Xiao, B., Zhan, X.-S., Wu, J. and Gao, H. (2019), "Time-optimal control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles with human control input", International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 138-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJICC-04-2018-0050

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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