Multiple unmanned aerial vehicle autonomous formation via wolf packs mechanism

摘要

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation flight is similar with the social behavior of biological populations. Inspired by the similarity, a method of autonomous formation control based on the mechanism of wolf packs is proposed. Firstly, a multi-UAVs controller based on potential field method is designed. Secondly, a model of the wolf packs hierarchy model by imitate the behavior of wolf pack is built. The topological structure and leadership in wolf packs is modelled by using digraph theory, respectively. Thirdly, the bionic mechanism of multiple unmanned aerial vehicle autonomous formation is analysed, and a formation keeping controller based on wolf packs mechanism is designed. The core of the controller is the model of the wolf packs hierarchy model. The model includes two assistant parts: the control instruction solver and the state transformer. Finally, we give a series of simulation results to show that the UAVs can form an expected flight formation with the designed controller, and keep the formation under serious conditions of complex leader motion.