A bumpless hybrid supervisory control algorithm for the formation of unmanned helicopters

• A smooth hybrid supervisory control algorithm is proposed for the formation control of UAV helicopters.
• The proposed control algorithm preserves the bisimulation relation between the plant and its abstracted model.
• The implementation issues of the proposed algorithm are investigated.
• A cooperative testbed is developed and the proposed algorithm is verified through actual flight tests.

This paper presents a bumpless hybrid supervisory control scheme for the formation of unmanned helicopters. The approach is based on the polar partitioning of the space, from which a finite bisimilar quotient transition system of the original continuous variable control system is obtained. Then, to implement the designed hybrid supervisory control algorithm, a hierarchical control structure is introduced with a discrete supervisor on the top layer that is connected to the regulation layer via an interface layer. Transiting over the partitioned space may cause jumps on the generated control signal which is harmful for a real flight system. Hence, a smooth control mechanism is introduced that has no jump when the system’s trajectory transits from one region to its adjacent region while preserving the bisimulation relation between the abstract model and the original partitioned system. Several actual flight tests have been conducted to verify the algorithm and the control performance.