Abstract
In this work, we propose a minimalistic swarm flocking approach for multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Our approach allows the swarm to achieve cohesively and aligned flocking (collective motion), in a random direction, without externally provided directional information exchange (alignment control). The method relies on minimalistic sensory requirements as it uses only the relative range and bearing of swarm agents in local proximity obtained through onboard sensors on the UAV. Thus, our method is able to stabilize and control the flock of a general shape above a steep terrain without any explicit communication between swarm members. To implement proximal control in a three-dimensional manner, the Lennard-Jones potential function is used to maintain cohesiveness and avoid collisions between robots. The performance of the proposed approach was tested in real-world conditions by experiments with a team of nine UAVs. Experiments also present the usage of our approach on UAVs that are independent of external positioning systems such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Relying only on a relative visual localization through the ultraviolet direction and ranging (UVDAR) system, previously proposed by our group, the experiments verify that our system can be applied in GNSS-denied environments. The degree achieved of alignment and cohesiveness was evaluated using the metrics of order and steady-state value.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the MRS hardware Eng. Daniel Hert and postdoc Tomas Baca for helping with the experiments.
Funding
Open access publishing supported by the National Technical Library in Prague. This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Institute - Sole Proprietorship LLC, UAE, under research project No. TII/ATM/2032/2020, by CTU grant no SGS23/177/OHK3/3T/13, by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) under research project No. 23-07517S, by the Europen Union under the project Robotics and advanced industrial production (reg. no. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004590), by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development - CNPq, by the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development - FNDCT, and by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations - MCTI from Brazil under research project No. 304551/2023-6 and 407334/2022-0, and by the Paraiba State Research Support Foundation - FAPESQ under research project No. 3030/2021.
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All authors contributed to the Conceptualization. Thulio Amorim carried out Methodology, Software, Data curation, and Writing - Original draft. Tiago Nascimento performed Writing - Original draft, Supervision, and Visualization. Akash Chaudhary and Tomas Baca were involved in Investigation. Eliseo Ferrante and Martin Saska assisted with Funding acquisition, Resources, Verification, and Writing - Review & Editing. All authors commented on the previous versions and approved the final manuscript.
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Amorim, T., Nascimento, T., Chaudhary, A. et al. A Minimalistic 3D Self-Organized UAV Flocking Approach for Desert Exploration. J Intell Robot Syst 110, 75 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-024-02108-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-024-02108-0