A formation flight experiment
J.M. Fowler, Raffaello D’Andrea · IEEE Control Systems · 2003
A formation flight testbed highlights the intricate interplay between technology and control theory for interconnected systems. Successfully controlling airplanes that fly in formation will entail a complete control design cycle: first principles modeling to understand the underlying physical phenomena, system identification to fit the experimental data to a physically motivated model, model-based control design, control system implementation, and finally, assessing the performance of the controller.