Multivehicle Coordination in an Estimated Time-Varying Flowfield

作者：Peterson Cameron^*; Paley Derek A

来源：Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 2011, 34(1): 177-191.

DOI：10.2514/1.50036

Unmanned vehicles are an effective platform for tracking, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. Existing control algorithms promote collaboration of unmanned aerial vehicles and other autonomous vehicles. However, these algorithms often fail to account for the degradation of control performance caused by flowfields. This paper presents decentralized multivehicle coordination algorithms designed for operation in a spatially or temporally varying flowfield. Each vehicle is represented using a Newtonian particle traveling at constant speed relative to the flow and subject to a steering control. An algorithm is described that stabilizes a circular formation in a time-varying spatially nonuniform flowfield, assuming that the flowfield is known and does not exceed the particle speed relative to the flow. For a time-varying and spatially uniform flowfield, an algorithm is provided to stabilize a circular formation in which the temporal spacing between particles is regulated. These algorithms are extended by relaxing the assumption that the flow is known: each particle dynamically estimates the flow and uses that estimate in the control. It is shown that including a turning-rate bound does not alter the main results. The theoretical results are supported by numerical simulations that illustrate the coordinated encirclement of a maneuvering target.

• 出版日期2011-2