Multi-UAV formation control method based on modified artificial physics

Abstract

This paper proposed a formation control method based on the modified artificial physics for the multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) formation control problem. The formation control method based on basic artificial physics has a shortcoming of easily plunging into a local optimal solution, which will result in some unexpected formation. So we improved the existing artificial physics method using interaction scheme to avoid the local optimum. In our formation control method based on modified artificial physics, interaction forces are applied on the UAVs to make the system escape from local optimum and achieve global optimum. Meanwhile we have constructed a distributed multi-UAVs coordination simulation framework based on the Robot Operating System(ROS) and Gazebo 3D simulator. The simulation results using our simulation framework are presented to verify the effectiveness of our formation control method.