Development of Mini-Drones and Feedback Linearization Based Velocity Control for Outdoor Autonomous Swarming Flights

In this paper, we detail the development of mini-drones and propose a feedback linearization based velocity controller, and the results of the outdoor autonomous swarming flights are described. The developed mini-drone has a compact size, with wheelbase of 130 mm and mass of 76 g, including all the sensors necessary for autonomous flight. The proposed controller enables precise velocity control via compensating nonlinearity inherent in dynamics. Also, the swarming flight test results show that the developed mini-drones and the proposed controller operate precisely under actual flight conditions.