Multi-vehicle Target Tracking and Formation Control in Non-inertial Reference Frames

Formations of autonomous unmanned vehicles may one day provide the monitoring and environmental sampling data necessary for understanding important time-evolving processes. To capture these processes, new multi-vehicle control algorithms are needed that are capable of steering vehicles to formations relative to moving frames of reference. This paper presents a novel approach to multi-vehicle formation control by designing distributed formation controllers in translating and rotating reference frames. The desired relative frame control is mapped to inertial turn-rate and speed-rate commands necessary to produce the desired relative frame motion. This approach is exemplified by applications in multi-vehicle coordinated standoff tracking of a moving target and formation control to non-convex formations of autonomous vehicles. Experimental results using autonomous ground and air vehicles highlight the theoretical results.