Formation Control Algorithms for Multiple-UAVs: A Comprehensive Survey

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been widely deployed in many applications such as transportation, data collection, monitoring, or tracking objects. Nowadays, numerous missions require UAVs to operate in a large area or to complete missions in a stringent period of time. Using a single UAV may not meet the performance requirements because of its small size and limited battery. In this situation, multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as an e ff ective measure that can address these limitations. A group of UAVs cooperatively working together could o ff er a solution that is more e ffi cient and economical than using a powerful UAV alone. To better utilizing the multiple-UAVs system, control of formation UAVs is a critical challenge that needs to overcome. Therefore, formation control has become an active research topic that gains great attention from researchers. Extensive research e ff orts have been dedicated to studying the formation control problem with numerous control protocols which have been proposed. This paper reviews the profound studies on formation control in literature. Each approach is investigated based on di ff erent criteria, which highlights its distinct merits and demerits. The comparison is provided to facilitate the readers in their future researches in the field of formation control. Finally, some open challenges and research directions are also discussed.