Formation Control of Multiple Autonomous Vehicle Systems

7 Formation Control of Aerial Systems

Formation flight of multiple aircraft has been an active research topic for many years. For the classic leader–follower configuration, when the follower is properly positioned with respect to the leader aircraft, the drag on the follower can be markedly reduced due to the strong wingtip vortices generated by the leader aircraft. Such close‐formation flight configurations can lead to reductions in fuel consumption and thus an increase in flight range. Real flight tests on Dryden F/A‐18s have illustrated that close formation flight could bring 20% drag reductions and 15–18% fuel savings in the trailing aircraft in certain flight conditions [2,3].

The high efficiency of close‐formation flight relies on accurate relative position control between the follower and the leader aircraft, especially under the effect of coupled aerodynamics. Many control strategies have been proposed for close‐formation flight with coupled aerodynamics.

In this chapter, we will introduce how to apply the motion synchronization control strategy proposed in Chapter 5 to multiple fixed‐wing aircraft in order to realize close‐formation flight. To be specific, we first apply a motion synchronization control strategy to synchronize the relative position tracking motion between multiple follower aircraft. The NASA–Hallock–Burnham vortex profile is used to calculate the vortex‐induced forces and moments and the autopilot models of the followers are modified with consideration ...