An Adaptive Priority Allocation for Formation UAVs in Complex Context

Abstract

A novel passing priority allocation method, based on the collision avoidance urgency, used for a formation of UAVs in a serried obstacle laden environment, is presented in this article. The method employs the collision cone and the prediction of the collision time to evaluate the urgency of imminent collision of each UAV, so as to establish a primary criterion for the priority allocation. And, the priority update policy is also innovative designed to alleviate burdens on the instability of frequent shifty context. This article exploits the potential field in a cooperative way to plan the path for each UAV, steering the UAVs to a given 3-D position, which combines the adaptive priorities to guide the UAVs passing through the barriers in turn. Numerical simulations and semi-physical experiments in designed outdoor condition are carried out to compare the performance of the proposed adaptive priorities with the regular-used default priorities. The total passing time and the energy cost of the semi-physical tests provide the promising validation in terms of the efficiency and superiority of the proposed method.