Adaptive Guidance and Control for Autonomous Formation Flight

Autonomous formation flight is a mechanism for achieving a pre-specified formation between a group of unmanned aerial vehicles. This paper presents an approach to autonomous formation flight in a leader-follower configuration using an adaptive output feedback control technique. Using measurements of the line-of-sight range and angles, an adaptive guidance law is formulated for the follower that generates velocity commands so that the follower maintains a prescribed range from the leader in the presence of leader maneuvers. A method to integrate the guidance system with the adaptive trajectory following autopilot controller of the Georgia Tech helicopter UAV is also studied. The overall architecture for autonomous formation flight is evaluated using software-in-the-loop simulations. Simulation results show that the proposed adaptive formation controller for helicopter UAVs maintains good range tracking performance in the presence of leader maneuvers.