The UAV cooperative formation control design with collision avoidance based on improved artificial potential field

Abstract

Aiming at the problem that the collision avoidance process of the UVA is the existence of local minima by using the artificial potential field method, a compound vector artificial potential field method is proposed based on the virtual structure and the leader-follower control strategy in the three-dimensional space, which can avoid the obstacle effectively and then track the motion target. The attractive force of the artificial potential field can guide the virtual leader to track the target. At the same time, the follower tracks the leader to keep the formation flight. The effect of the repulsive force can avoid the collision between any two UAVs and arrange the followers evenly distributed on the spherical surface. Moreover, the follower's specific order and position are not required. The collision path of the UAV formation depends on the artificial potential field with the two composite vectors, every UAV can choose the optimal path to avoid the obstacle and reconfigure the regular triangle formation flight after passing the obstacle. The simulation experiment verifies the validity and feasibility of the proposed the collision avoidance control algorithm and provides an idea for the collision avoidance of the Multi-UAV formation.