Abstract: As a typical cooperative control problem, simultaneous arrival of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) finds its application in formation flight, cooperative attack, etc. In this article, simultaneous arrival of multiple UAVs is investigated for such applications as coordinated target intercept by multiple UAVs. Considering the characteristics of changing battlefield and the limitations of UAVs, a decentralized control method is presented, which consistes of a decentralized control architecture relying only on local information interactions and decentralized control strategies based on consensus algorithms. Decentralized control strategies with an external reference signal and a virtual leader which have been introduced respectively are provided for operators to control the motion of UAVs as a whole. Path planning and velocity control are combined to weaken the influence of path error and pop-up threats. Simulation results show that the simultaneous arrival of multiple UAVs can be realized with excellent flexibility, robustness, reliability and scalability by the proposed decentralized control method.

Key words: unmanned aerial vehicles, simultaneous arrival, decentralized control, velocity control, path planning, consensus algorithm