Adaptive Control For Enhancing Performance And Robustness In Cooperative Rotorcraft Transportation

Abstract

Cooperative suspended-load transportation using multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles is gaining increasing relevance in a variety of applications, including last-mile parcel delivery and rapid deployment in disaster-relief logistics. However, these operations entail significant challenges related to energy efficiency, safety, and public acceptance. This study proposes a cooperative L1 augmentation scheme integrated with a baseline formation control strategy for a pair of rotorcraft transporting a shared slung payload. By leveraging the dynamic decoupling achieved through a Lagrangian linearization of the cooperative suspended-load system, the proposed control augmentation compensates for both matched and unmatched model uncertainties as well as external disturbances. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated through high-fidelity numerical simulations that replicate suitable urban air mobility and delivery scenarios, incorporating two heavy-lift octarotors subject to environmental disturbances and rotor-induced aerodynamic effects, modeled using Blade Element Theory. Relative to the baseline controller, the augmented approach exhibits improved position and velocity tracking performance, along with decreased energy consumption, thereby contributing to enhanced operational safety.