Vector field formation control

Abstract

The mission control of a fixed-wings UAV is slightly more complex compared to other models like quad-rotors or unicycles since the dynamic of a fixed-wing aircraft does not allow rapid direction changes or stop-rotate-go type of movements. Those restriction needs to be taken into consideration when building a mission control system, moreover, the problem increases in complexity when the goal is to fly in formation with several UAVs, indeed during its development, we have to handle also the scalability of the communication link and the robustness of the formation during harsh weather conditions and disturbances. In this research we propose a solution based on a vector field This vector field is computed based on the leader attitude and the followers positions. From the vector field, the follower can calculate the heading and the speed that it has to keep in order to reach the formation. To reach this solution, we first defined a desired heading and ground speed, then, by defining the goals of the UAV and the dynamic of the UAV we found the commanded heading and the commanded ground speed for each follower. The stability of the result is checked by dividing the convergence problem into two smaller problems and applying the Lyapunov stability theory. The solution is fully implemented using state of the art technology in embedded and autopilots for UAV. The system was physically simulated with ROS in Gazebo. At the end, the performances are compared to another state of the art solution, in which VFF outperformed in most of the cases