Using multiple Quadrotor aircraft and Linear Model Predictive Control for the encirclement of a target

A Multi-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) team formed from two or more UAVs is used in the encirclement of a target. Encirclement is defined as the situation in which a target is isolated and surrounded by a UAV team in order to maintain awareness and containment of that target. In this paper, the problem of maintaining a circular path around a target is considered and a Linear Model Predictive Control (LMPC) strategy is implemented on a team of Qball-X4 quadrotor aircraft in order to follow the circular path. The linear plant controlled by the LMPC is a combination of process models found through system identification and a linear cartesian to polar transformation. A collision avoidance system, based on potential fields, is successfully implemented between the Qball-X4 quadrotors. The contribution of this paper lay in the application of LMPC to the problem of encirclement using a team of Qball-X4 quadrotors and the ability of these UAVs to apply a collision avoidance policy.