A Formation Control Method Combining the Global and Local Informations

Abstract

A formation control method for multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is proposed in the paper. The global information and local information are combined in the method. The global information is mainly composed of the expected flight trajectory from flight tasks and expected formation. The local information is mainly composed of the relative distance between vehicles, especially comparing to the expected formation configuration. Combining the global and local informations, a formation control method based on the guidance points is improved, and the compact formation keeping performance is enhanced, especially during some maneuvers(such as turning). The performance of the proposed method is verified through simulation results.