Formation control of distance and orientation based-model of an omnidirectional robot and a quadrotor UAV

This article proposes a dynamic model based on distance and orientation between an omnidirectional mobile robot and a quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), both under the leader–follower scheme. It is assumed that the omnidirectional robot is already controlled in order to follow a desired trajectory. On the other hand, a backstepping with a Continuous Sliding-Mode Control (C-SMC) are designed for the quadrotor with the objective of keeping a distance and formation angle with respect to the omnidirectional robot. Numerical simulations and real-time experiments show the performance of the proposed control strategy. •A multi-agent model, based on distance and orientation between robots, is developed.•The control system scheme is based on a Continuous Sliding-Modes and Backstepping.•The UAV keeps a distance and attitude with respect to the omnidirectional robot.•The velocities of the omnidirectional robot act as a perturbation to the UAV.