Multi-UAVs formation flight control based on leader-follower pattern

As a core concept in the development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) co-operation, formation flight is attracting more and more attention recently. To realize formation flight of fixed-wing vehicles, a geometric formation flight control method based on real-time guidance point computation is proposed in the paper. The control method is within the leader-follower pattern. Through the feed forward of the guidance point, the formation is guaranteed to converge quickly and keep effectively. What's more, based on the control method, a speed adjustment method is proposed, to make the formation keep accurately. Finally, based on the researched autopilot and three small fixed-wing vehicles, rectangle, circular and triangle formation flight experiments are carried out. Through the experiments, the feasibility of the formation control method and effectiveness of the speed adjustment method during formation keeping and transforming processes are verified in the paper.