Quaternion-based attitude synchronisation for multiple rigid bodies in the presence of actuator saturation

ABSTRACT

This paper concentrates on the quaternion-based attitude synchronisation problems of networked rigid bodies under fixed and undirected communication topology without relative angular measurements in the presence of actuator saturation. We first consider the leaderless attitude synchronisation problem with zero final angular velocity. In this case, we not only discuss the performance under the acyclic communication topology with the proposed bounded control algorithm, but also analyse that if there exist cycles in the topology, the proposed bounded algorithm guarantees that all equilibrium points are unstable except that the attitudes of networked rigid bodies achieve synchronisation. We also expand the result to the case of attitude tracking synchronisation with a static leader in the presence of actuator saturation. Next, the tracking synchronisation problem with the desired time-varying attitude is addressed in the presence of actuator saturation. Numerical examples are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed bounded schemes and illustrate the performances of multiple rigid bodies.

Keywords:

• Unit quaternion
• rigid bodies
• attitude synchronisation
• actuator saturation
• tracking control

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China[grant number 61375072] and Nature Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province [grant number LQ16F030005].

Notes on contributors

Yinqiu Wang

Yinqiu Wang was born in 1986. He received his Ph.D. in Control Theory and Control Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, China, in 2015 and his M.S. degree in Control Theory and Control Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, China, in 2010. He is currently a lecturer in Hangzhou Dianzi University, China. His interests include cooperative control of multi-systems and nonlinear control.

Changbin Yu

Changbin Yu received his Bachelor degree in Computer Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2004 and Ph.D. degree in Engineering from the Australian National University, Australia, in 2008. Since then, he has been an academic staff with the Australian National University and subsequently held various appointments with Hangzhou Dianzi University (China), National ICT Australia (Australia), etc. His current research interests include control of autonomous formations, multi-agent systems, mobile sensor networks, human-robot interaction, and graph theory. He is Associate Editor of International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control.

Fengmin Yu

Fengmin Yu was born in Shandong, China. She is a candidate for the full time Master degree in Hangzhou Dianzi University. She received her B.E. degrees from Shandong Agricultural University with high honors. She was a recipient of the National Endeavor Fellowship from People's Republic of China. Her main current research interests include multi-agent systems and graph theory.

Li Gao

Li Gao was born in Hubei, China. He received both his B.E. and B.S. degrees (second degrees) from China Three Gorges University, Yi Chang, China. He is a candidate for the full time Master in Hangzhou Dianzi University. His major research interests include multi-agent systems, nonlinear control system.