Abstract
A novel approach to address swarm coordination of a multi-agent system consisting of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) using Robust Control Lyapunov Function (RCLF) is proposed in this paper. The approach addresses swarm coordination by commanding each agent to reach a desired separation distance with its neighbors and achieving heading consensus. The swarming is modeled as a decentralized scheme using behavioral approach and the inter-agent interaction is described with sigmoid artificial potential field. For this engineering swarm to mimic the natural flocking of birds, the local interaction is also modeled with Voronoi partitions method such that each agent only interacts with their immediate neighbors. Mid-air collision can be avoided by specifying a suitable desired separation distance. The simulation results show that the approach yields less intense artificial potential field, and is able to achieve the three main criteria of Reynolds’ boids model (cohesion, separation, and alignment) effectively. Agents are able to satisfy the behavioral criteria in following an unknown informed agent (leader) in the presence of disturbances. Experimental results using quadrotor test-beds are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the decentralized behavioral scheme.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beard, R.W., McLain, T.W.: Multiple UAV Cooperative Search under Collision Avoidance and Limited Range Communication Constraints. In: Proceedings of the 42nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp.25–30. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., Maui, 9-12 December 2003
Sabine, H., Laurent, W., Jean-Christophe, Z., Dario, F.: Ant-based swarming with positionless micro air vehicles for communication relay. Swarm Intell. 2, 2–4 (2008)
Weihua, Z., Go, T.H.: 3-D formulation of formation flight based on model predictive control with collision avoidance scheme. In: 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc., Orlando, 4-7 January 2010
Zhao, W., Tiauw Hiong, G.: Robust decentralized formation flight control. Int. J. Aerosp. Eng. 157590, 157513 (2011). doi:10.1155/2011/157590
Reynolds, C.W.: Flocks, herds, and schools: a distributed behavioral model. Comput. Graph. (ACM) 21(4), 25–34 (1987)
Bil, C.: Control design for unmanned aerial vehicle swarming. In: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Part G. J. Aerosp. Eng. 222, 4, 549–567 (2008)
Ogren, P., Egerstedt, M., Hu, X.: A control Lyapunov function approach to multiagent coordination. IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom. 18(Compendex), 847–851 (2002)
Clough, B.T.: UAV Swarming. So What are Those Swarms, What are the Implications, and How Do We Handle Them. In, United States. p 17 (2002)
Freeman, R.A., Kokotović, P.V.: Robust Nonlinear Control Design: State-Space and Lyapunov Techniques. Systems & Control. Birkhäuser, Boston (1996)
Ballerini, M., Calbibbo, N., Candeleir, R., Cavagna, A., Cisbani, E., Giardina, I., Lecomte, V., Orlandi, A., Parisi, G., Procaccini, A., Viale, M., Zdravkovic, V.: Interaction ruling animal collective behavior depends on topological rather than metric distance: Evidence from a field study. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 105(7), 1232–1237 (2008)
Justh, E.W., Krishnaprasad, P.S.: Equilibria and steering laws for planar formations. Syst. Control Lett. 52(1), 25–38 (2004)
Gustavi, T., Dimarogonas, D.V., Egerstedt, M., Hu, X.: Sufficient conditions for connectivity maintenance and rendezvous in leader-follower networks. Automatica 46(Compendex), 133–139 (2010)
Vicsek, T., Czirok, A., Ben-Jacob, E., Cohen, I., Shochet, O.: Novel type of phase transition in a system of self-driven particles. Phys. Rev. Lett. 75(Compendex), 1226–1226 (1995)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chiew, S.H., Zhao, W. & Go, T.H. Swarming Coordination with Robust Control Lyapunov Function Approach. J Intell Robot Syst 78, 499–515 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-013-9998-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-013-9998-0