Design of a track guidance algorithm for formation flight of UAVs

Abstract

Precise flight path tracking capability is generally required to carry out complex missions for high performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Accurate waypoint navigation is a key feature that these UAVs usually have. This paper presents a track guidance algorithm for the waypoint navigation of multiple UAVs. In order to minimize the track error between pre-assigned flight path and the position of a single vehicle, it’s heading or yaw rate of the vehicle is guided to direct a certain distance ahead on the flight path. The suggested guidance algorithm is a spatial version of the first order dynamic characteristics for a time-dependent system. An invariant tracking performance is guaranteed in a spatial domain so that a constant flight trajectory pattern is obtained without regard to a speed of the vehicle. Additionally, a modified track guidance algorithm is executed for a formation flight of the UAVs. A crucial design parameter is a spatial constant that controls the shape of the convergence to an assigned flight path. Reference flight trajectories are designed based on a two-dimensional vehicle model, and the proposed algorithm is verified by numerical simulation using rigid body UAV dynamics with MATLAB/Simulink Aerosim Blockset.