Time-varying formation control of multiple quad-rotors based on ellipsoid.

Time-varying formation control problem for a group of multiple quad-rotors has been considered in this article with the help of ellipsoid. Firstly, an elliptic equation with time-varying parameters has been firstly introduced to describe the desired formation patterns for multiple quad-rotors in three-dimensional space. Then position controller and attitude controller are constructed using the method of sliding model control, respectively. Through tuning parameters of the elliptic equation, time-varying formation control of multiple quad-rotors has been realized using the controllers proposed in this article where smoothing transition between rigid formations has been guaranteed. Simulation results for formation control of quad-rotors that perform translation, scaling, and rotating actions have illustrated effectiveness of the time-varying formation controller that proposed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]