Coupling in UAV Cooperative Control

Abstract

This chapter addresses complexity and coupling issues in cooperative decision and control of distributed autonomous UAV teams. Hierarchical decomposition is implemented where team vehicles are allocated to subteams using set partition theory. Results are presented for single assignment and multiple assignment using network flow and auction algorithms. Various methods for computing tours of multiple assignments are addressed. Simulation results are presented for wide area search munitions where complexity and coupling are incrementally addressed in the decision system, yielding improved team performance.