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Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (17): 530249-530249.doi: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2024.30249

• Articles • Previous Articles    

Multi⁃UAV cooperative formation control and flight test verification

Chuangxin ZHAO, Haojian TI, Zhaohong LI, Shan FENG, Shuxing YANG, Peng TANG()   

  1. Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co. Ltd. ,Chengdu 610091,China
  • Received:2024-01-29 Revised:2024-03-12 Accepted:2024-04-16 Online:2024-05-23 Published:2024-05-08
  • Contact: Peng TANG E-mail:tp_study@hotmail.com
  • Supported by:
    Provincial or Ministerial Level Project

Abstract:

Aiming at the control and management of multi-aircraft cooperative formation flight for fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), a control method and state management framework suitable for large-scale formation networking is proposed. Firstly, a general formation design method is given, any formation can be designed by using the minimum formation unit. Based on the open multi-machine ad-hoc network architecture, a three-level dynamic network system of “Leader-Captain-Wingman” is constructed. Secondly, the formation motion equation of captain-wingman is established, and a nonlinear formation keeping control law is proposed for the forward and directional lateral motion of wingman. The convergence of each channel to target position is theoretically proved. For the altitude channel, the target value of dynamic adjustment of pitch angle is given with the lift rate and altitude signal as the main control signal of the guidance loop. According to the relative position relationship between wingman and captain, the rolling disconnection strategy is designed to control the orderly disbanding of wingman and ensure the safety of formation flight. Finally, flight tests of “humanoid” and “diamond” formation of 3, 4 and 5 UAVs were carried out based on a certain type of reduced ratio UAVs. The test results show that each UAV has good tracking performance for target position, altitude, heading and speed, and the capability of formation maintenance has strong robustness. The multi-aircraft cooperative flight achieves the control and management of the whole process from formation assembly, maintenance and reconstruction to formation dissolution and single landing.

Key words: unmanned aerial vehicle, dynamic networking, formation control, formation keeping, nonlinear control

CLC Number: