3D exploration priority based flocking of UAVs

Abstract

This paper presents a 3D flocking algorithm for a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), where each member is equipped with limited range sensors and computational resources. A minimal leader-follower communication scheme is proposed for maneuvering huge swarm of UAVs. The proposed triangular formation compacts the overall group size. Even though UAVs are considered for tactical, remote monitoring, and surveillance purposes in both indoor and outdoor environments, it is very difficult to achieve autonomous aerial flocking in unknown cluttered environments. Specifically, greater attention is placed to reduce computational complexity for on-board implementation. We demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithm in a real world scenario with the V-REP simulator employing a group of five UAVs.