Distance and orientation-based formation control of UAVs and coordination with UGVs

Abstract: Nowadays, research in autonomous drones has increased thanks to the advancement of drone technology. Nevertheless, there are still limitations when performing specific missions due to flight duration, computational load and mission complexity. This thesis investigates ways to solve this problem by taking advantage of multiple UAVs and UGVs. This thesis aims to implement and evaluate strategies for formation and coordination of multiple UAVs and UGVs. Firstly, we present a brief review of state of the art on formation and flocking control, further specifying the advantages and limitations of each approach. Secondly, we use a behaviour-based approach to obtain multi-UAV formation control. We adapt the algorithm to apply it to a single integrator system model to control the UGVs’ formation. We then propose an extension to the original algorithm to consider orientation during formation and a leader-follower strategy to coordinate the interaction between the units using a cluster-based approach. Finally, we tested our proposed control laws in simulation and in experiments. The simulations were done in Matlab, while the real-implementation experiments were performed using the Crazyflie quadcopters and three-wheeled omniwheel robots.