Path-Following with a UGV-UAV Formation Considering that the UAV Lands on the UGV

This paper addresses the control of a formation composed of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The formation navigates in a coordinated way, with the UAV following the UGV while keeping a relative pose with respect to the UGV as long as the UGV follows a specified path, so that the UAV can land on the UGV at any desired instant. This application is conceived in a context in which the UAV has finished a package delivery task and comes back to land over a platform used as a base for the package delivery operation. Experimental results are presented, which validate the approach adopted to accomplish such a task.