Formation Control and Navigation of a Quadrotor Swarm

We investigate the formation control of a team of homogeneous quadrotor aerial vehicles. We formulate the multiquadrotor formation as a rigid body that moves in the space with 4 degrees of freedom, which greatly reduces the modelling complexity. By combining a high-level coordination layer with the low-level control layer, aggressive formation motion can be achieved. The quadrotor formation is navigated to move in 3D space by following a reference trajectory that is outlined by a series of discrete waypoints specified as external inputs. We have validated our method through both simulations and real quadrotor experiments. Our results show that the quadrotor formation can move as fast as 2. 5 m/s within a confined indoor environment where the designated formations are always well maintained.