Cooperative Control for a Flight Array of UAVs and an Application in Radar Jamming*. Issue 1 (July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jang, Inmo; Jeong, Junho; Shin, Hyo-Sang; Kim, Seungkeun; Tsourdos, Antonios; Suk, Jinyoung
• Is Part Of: IFAC-PapersOnLine. Volume 50:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 8011
• Page End: 8018
• Publication Date: 2017-07
• Subjects: Cooperative systems -- Coordination of multiple vehicle systems -- Multi-agent systems -- Flying robots -- Task allocation -- Nonlinear cooperative control; Automatic control -- Periodicals; 629.805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.1225
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2405-8963

Abstract

Abstract: This paper proposes a flight array system and an integrated approach to cope with its operational issues raised in mission-planning level (i.e., task allocation) and control level (i.e., control allocation). The proposed flight array system consists of multiple ducted-fan UAVs that can assemble with each other to fly together, as well as dissemble themselves to fly individually for accomplishing a given mission. To address the task allocation problem, a game-theoretical framework is developed. This framework enables agents to converge into an agreed task allocation in a decentralised and scalable manner, while guaranteeing a certain level of global optimality. In addition, this paper suggests a cooperative control scheme based on sliding mode control and weighted pseudo-inverse techniques so that the system's non-linearity and control allocation issue are effectively handled. As a proof-of-concept, a prototype simulation program is developed and validated in a cooperative jamming mission. The numerical simulations manifest the feasibility of effectiveness of the proposed approach.