Formation control for different maker drones from a game pad

This paper describes a generalized software interface for formation flying by drones from different manufacturers. Conventional research into formation flight assumes that the drones all have the same power and functionality. However, consider a disaster response, where we might assemble a platoon of drones to sense the environment and to search for survivors by combining the different functions of drones provided by different manufacturers. The difficulties of controlling formation flight by such a variety of drones include both different mechanical specifications and different interfaces from the manufacturers for activating the same command. In this research, we construct a generalized interface for drones from each manufacturer using OpenRTM-aist. We can then assemble these drones and establish formation flight by using a virtual leader-follower system. The leader and the follower positions are calculated by using speed and rotation data from feedback information such as the GPS, velocity and rotation data from each individual machine. We also investigate good features of flight commands that can express the attributes of the representative motion of the drones. From our experiments, we show that we can establish formation flight using drones of different power and from multiple manufacturers.