Proof of Control of a UAV and a UGV Cooperating to Manipulate an Object

TL;DR

This paper presents a control strategy for a cooperative UAV and UGV system to manipulate an object, ensuring stability and constraint satisfaction through advanced control laws and numerical validation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel control approach combining saturated PD control, cascade control, and nonlinear reference governors for cooperative UAV-UGV manipulation.

Findings

System stability is proven via Input-to-State Stability and Small Gain theorem.

Numerical simulations confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

The method successfully manages actuator saturations and constraints.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the control of a system composed of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) which cooperate to manipulate an object. The two units are subject to actuator saturations and cooperate to move the object to a desired pose, characterized by its position and inclination. The paper proposes a control strategy where the ground vehicle is tasked to deploy the object to a certain position, whereas the aerial vehicle adjusts its inclination. The ground vehicle is governed by a saturated proportional-derivative control law. The aerial vehicle is regulated by means of a cascade control specifically designed for this problem that is able to exploit the mechanical interconnection. The stability of the overall system is proved through Input-to-State Stability and Small Gain theorem arguments. To solve the problem of constraints satisfaction, a nonlinear Reference Governor scheme is implemented. Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.