Title: Fault tolerant formation flight control of UAVs

Authors: X. Zhang, R. Xu, C. Kwan, L. Haynes, Y. Yang, M.M. Polycarpou

Addresses: Intelligent Automation, Inc., 15400 Calhoun Drive, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20855, USA. ' Intelligent Automation, Inc., 15400 Calhoun Drive, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20855, USA. ' Intelligent Automation, Inc., 15400 Calhoun Drive, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20855, USA. ' Intelligent Automation, Inc., 15400 Calhoun Drive, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20855, USA ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Cincinnati, 2624 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA. ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Cincinnati, 2624 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA

Abstract: In this paper, we summarise our recent results in fault tolerant formation control of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV). A fault tolerant control scheme to deal with both GPS sensor failure and wireless communication packet losses is presented. Moreover, some extensions to the formation control algorithms developed by UC Berkeley are made to support time-varying heading and curved flight trajectories. The effectiveness of the presented fault tolerant control scheme is illustrated by real-time formation flight simulations conducted in a wireless network environment. Both rotary and fixed wing UAVs, mesh and triangular formations, and straight and curved trajectories are considered in our real-time simulations.

Keywords: fault detection; fault tolerant control; formation flight; global positioning system; GPS; unmanned air vehicles; fault tolerance; formation control; sensor failure; wireless communication packet losses; flight simulation; wireless networks; flight trajectories; rotary UAVs; fixed wing UAVs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVAS.2004.006108

International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems, 2004 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.217 - 235

Published online: 04 Feb 2005 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article