This study proposes a coordinated path following approach to solve the formation reconfiguration problem in a guided manner. A novel coordinated path following control law is proposed, which steers a fleet of UAVs towards their closest projection points on their respective paths by controlling the angular velocity of each UAV, and achieves coordinated formation reconfiguration by synchronizing the UAVs’ closest projection points via controlling the linear velocity. Each UAV only uses its neighbors’ destination arc distances for coordination, which as a result saves communication bandwidth. The UAVs’ velocity constraints are also satisfied, with the linear velocity converging to the cruise speed under the proposed control law, which is helpful to prolong the flight time. The hardware-in-the-loop simulation, as well as the field experiments with seven to ten fixed-wing UAVs, are performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

这项研究提出了一种协调路径跟随的方法来解决制导系统中的编队重配置问题方式。提出了一种遵循控制律的新型协调路径，该方法通过控制每个无人机的角速度，将无人机群引向其各自路径上的最接近投影点，并通过控制无人机的最接近投影点来实现协调编队重构。线速度。每个无人机仅使用其邻居的目标弧距离进行协调，从而节省了通信带宽。无人机的速度约束也得到了满足，线速度在拟议的控制律下收敛于巡航速度，有助于延长飞行时间。进行了硬件在环仿真以及七到十个固定翼无人机的现场试验，以验证该方法的有效性。