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Using Lazy Agents to Improve the Flocking Efficiency of Multiple UAVs

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Abstract

A group of agents can form a flock using the augmented Cucker-Smale (C-S) model. The model autonomously aligns them to a common velocity and maintains a relative distance among the agents in a distributed manner by sharing the information among neighbors. This paper introduces the concept of inactiveness to the augmented C-S model for improving the flocking performance. It involves controlling the energy and convergence time required to form a stable flock. Inspired by the natural world where a few lazy (or inactive) workers are helpful to the group performance in social insect colonies. In this study, we analyzed different levels of inactiveness as a degree of control input effectiveness for multiple fixed-wing UAVs in the flocking algorithm. To find the appropriate inactiveness level for each flock member, the particle swarm optimization-based approach is used as the first step, based on the initial condition of the flock. However, as the significant computational burden may cause difficulties in implementing the optimization-based approach in real time, we also propose a heuristic adaptive inactiveness approach, which changes the inactivity level of selected agents adaptively according to their position and heading relative to the flock center. The performance of the proposed approaches using the concept of lazy (or inactive) agents is verified with numerical simulations by comparing them with the conventional flocking algorithm in various scenarios.

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Funding

This research has been supported by the Defense Challengeable Future Technology Program of Agency for Defense Development, Republic of Korea and Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2020R1A6A1A03040570).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea

    Yeongho Song, Myeonggeun Gu, Joonwon Choi & Hyondong Oh

  2. PABLO AIR Co. Ltd., Incheon, Republic of Korea

    Seunghan Lim

  3. Institute of Aerospace Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield, MK43 0AL, UK

    Hyo-Sang Shin & Antonios Tsourdos

Authors
  1. Yeongho Song
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  2. Myeonggeun Gu
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  3. Joonwon Choi
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  4. Hyondong Oh
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  5. Seunghan Lim
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  6. Hyo-Sang Shin
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  7. Antonios Tsourdos
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Contributions

• Yeongho Song - Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Original Draft Preparation

• Myeonggeun Gu Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Original Draft Preparation

• Joonwon Choi Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation

• Hyondong Oh: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Review & Editing

• Seunghan Lim: Conceptualization, Review & Editing

• Hyo-Sang Shin: Conceptualization, Review & Editing

• Antonios Tsourdos: Conceptualization, Review & Editing

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hyondong Oh.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Song, Y., Gu, M., Choi, J. et al. Using Lazy Agents to Improve the Flocking Efficiency of Multiple UAVs. J Intell Robot Syst 103, 53 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-021-01492-1

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