Formation control for UAVs using a Flux Guided approach

Hartley, J., Shum, H. P. H., Ho, E. S. L. , Wang, H. and Ramamoorthy, S. (2022) Formation control for UAVs using a Flux Guided approach. Expert Systems with Applications, 205, 117665. (doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2022.117665)

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Abstract

Existing studies on formation control for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have not considered encircling targets where an optimum coverage of the target is required at all times. Such coverage plays a critical role in many real-world applications such as tracking hostile UAVs. This paper proposes a new path planning approach called the Flux Guided (FG) method, which generates collision-free trajectories for multiple UAVs while maximising the coverage of target(s). Our method enables UAVs to track directly toward a target whilst maintaining maximum coverage. Furthermore, multiple scattered targets can be tracked by scaling the formation during flight. FG is highly scalable since it only requires communication between sub-set of UAVs on the open boundary of the formation’s surface. Experimental results further validate that FG generates UAV trajectories 1.5x shorter than previous work and that trajectory planning for 9 leader/follower UAVs to surround a target in two different scenarios only requires 0.52 s and 0.88 s, respectively. The resulting trajectories are suitable for robotic controls after time-optimal parameterisation; we demonstrate this using a 3d dynamic particle system that tracks the desired trajectories using a PID controller.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This work is supported by the MOD Chief Scientific Adviser’s Research Programme, through the Defence and Security Accelerator, UK (Ref: DSTLX-1000140725), and the Royal Society, UK (Ref: IES\R2\181024 and IES\R1\191147).
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Ho, Dr Edmond S. L
Creator Roles:
Ho, E. S.L.Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Project administration
Authors: Hartley, J., Shum, H. P. H., Ho, E. S. L., Wang, H., and Ramamoorthy, S.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Journal Name:Expert Systems with Applications
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0957-4174
ISSN (Online):1873-6793
Published Online:03 June 2022
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2022 The Authors
First Published:First published in Expert Systems with Applications 205: 117665
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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