Cooperation between Aerial and Ground vehicle groups for Reconnaissance missions

Abstract

In this paper we focus on the interaction between a group of ground vehicles and a group of aerial vehicles. The ground agents interact through time-invariant rules, synchronize their velocities using a TDMA-based communication protocol, and maintain cohesion and separation by means of interagent potential forces. Ground vehicles estimate their formation's centroid using delayed information and transmit their estimates to the aerial group which circles the ground formation's centroid while avoiding midair collisions. Stability of the ground group motion is established in a Lyapunov framework, exploiting the properties of the non-negative matrices involved. A Lyapunov analysis is also used to ensure that UAVs track the ground group's centroid.