An Approach to Formation Control of UAVs Based on Applying Adapted Kohonen Neural Network

The paper gives a statement and considers the solution of an urgent scientific problem of formation control for a group of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in an unstable environment. To construct the reference trajectories and allocate UAVs to positions of a given structure, an original approach is proposed based on the adapted Kohonen neural network with a set of metrics, including Euclidean, Mahalanobis and Euclidean-Mahalanobis distances. To implement the movement of a UAV group in a complex environment, we apply the principles of intelligent-geometric control, which allows to combine flexible intelligent and precise geometric control methods within one concept. When moving along a given route, UAVs use a set of allowable control strategies. The developed modeling scheme is designed to take into account wind loads and possibly dangerous rapprochement of vehicles. To reflect the dynamics of UAVs, a special module is used that contains transfer functions integrated into a single stabilization system with an autopilot. The proposed approach has shown promise when simulating a series of formation control problems.