Flying in formation using a pursuit guidance algorithm

This paper describes a simple, straightforward algorithm for flying in formation of multiple unmanned air vehicles (UAV's). In particular, we are interested in a formation with no communication between the vehicles. It is assumed that relative kinematics parameters are available to each UAV from an on-board passive sensor followed by estimation processes and a controller which may use visual information. The paper introduces a guidance algorithm, which is based on the theory of pursuit curves in conjunction with a velocity controller.