A Distributed Obstacle Avoidance Method for Swarm UAVs based on Behavioral Approach and Route Planning

In this paper, we study the obstacle avoidance method of swarm UAVs. This method is used to avoid the longtime split of the formation when the swarm passes through the obstacle area. A control method of the dense formation is designed based on the behavioral approach with the constraints of formation boundary. This distributed method just needs each UAV to communicate with neighboring individuals of the swarm. A new route planning method based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed to plan a safe and flyable route matching the formation width for swarm UAVs in the area with obstacles. The planned route serves as the consensus information of the swarm, which is equivalent to a virtual UAV. During avoiding obstacles, swarm UAVs are treated as a whole, and the swarm forms a dense formation by following the planned route. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and rationality of the proposed method.