Adaptive Swarm Formation Control for Hybrid Ground and Aerial Assets
Laura Barnes, Richard D. Garcia, Mary Anne, Kimon P. Valavanis · InTech eBooks · 2010
In this work, a methodology for control and coordination of UAVs and UGVs has been presented. UAVs and UGVs were integrated into a single team and were able to adapt their formation accordingly. Potential field functions together with limiting functions can be successfully utilized to control UGV and UAV swarm formation, obstacle avoidance and the overall swarm movement. A single UAV was also successfully used to pull the UGV swarm into formation. These formations can move as a unit, adapt to non-uniform surfaces and change dynamically. In the future, this approach will be expanded to swarms of heterogeneous UAVs utilizing manned and unmanned vehicles as well as swarm adaptation based on environmental parameters. In addition, the variety of formations will be expanded.