Backstepping based formation control of quadrotors with the state transformation technique

In this paper, a backstepping-based formation control of quadrotors with the state transformation technique is proposed. First, the dynamics of a quadrotor is derived by using the Newton-Euler formulation. Next, a backstepping-based formation control for quadrotors using a state transformation technique is presented. In the position control, which is the basis of formation control, it is possible to derive the reference attitude angles employing a state transformation technique without the small angle assumption or the simplified dynamics usually used. Stability analysis based on the Lyapunov theorem shows that the proposed formation controller can provide a quadrotor formation error system that is asymptotically stabilized. Finally, we verify the performance of the proposed formation control method through comparison simulations.