Formations of unmanned micro aerial vehicles led by migrating virtual leader

Abstract

A novel approach for control and motion planning of formations of multiple unmanned micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), also referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — multirotor helicopters, in cluttered GPS-denied environments is presented in this paper. The proposed method enables autonomously to design complex maneuvers of a compact MAV team in a virtual-leader-follower scheme. The feasibility of obtained results of the motion planning approach and the required stability of the formation is achieved by migrating the virtual leader along a hull surrounding the formation. This enables us to suddenly change formation motion in all directions, independently of actual orientation of the formation.