A Low-Cost Solution for Leader-Follower Formation Control of Multi-UAV System Based on Pixhawk

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, cooperative multi-UAV systems have shown great performance in a variety of potential applications. Aiming at the problem of fixed-wing UAVs cooperative formation flight, this paper presents a low-cost system based on Pixhawk autopilot for keeping the shape of the formation. The kinematic relationship of a leader-follower UAV formation is established and a fuzzy PID control law is designed for the follower to maintain the expected position relative to the leader. Wireless data transmission between the leader and followers is achieved by using several radio telemetry modules. The proposed formation control system is validated by a series of successful flight experiments using 3 small-scaled UAV models, which has proven its feasibility and reliability.