Decentralized circular formation control of fixed-wing UAVs using vector field method

Abstract

 This article proposes a method for circular formation control of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) based on the method of a non-uniform vector field path following, taking into account the nonlinear structure of the “autopilot-vehicle” system, allowing the UAV group to fly along a circular trajectory with any given relative distances subject to geometric constraints. For the decentralization of control it is assumed that each UAV receives information about the relative position of only vehicles which are adjacent to it. Global asymptotic stability for the given control law is proved and estimations for ultimate bounds are found. Efficiency and performance were tested in MATLAB / Simulink.