Abstract
In this paper, a survey on distributed control applications for multi Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) systems is proposed. The focus is on consensus-based control, and both rotary-wing and fixed-wing UAVs are considered. On one side, the latest experimental configurations for the implementation of formation flight are analysed and compared for multirotor UAVs. On the other hand, the control frameworks taking into account the mobility of the fixed-wing UAVs performing target tracking are considered. This approach can be helpful to assess and compare the solutions for practical applications of consensus in UAV swarms.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Data availability
Not applicable.
Change history
19 January 2023
Missing Open Access funding information has been added in the Funding Note.
References
Lizzio, F.F., Capello, E., Guglieri, G.: A review of consensus-based multi-agent UAV applications. In: 2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), pp 1548–1557 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS51884.2021.9476858
Ren, W., Beard, R.W.: Distributed Consensus in Multi-vehicle Cooperative Control. Springer-Verlag, London Limited (2008)
Baek, D, Chen, Y, Bocca, A, Macii, A, Macii, E, Poncino, M: Battery-aware energy model of drone delivery tasks. In: SLPED ’18: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design, vol. 49, pp 1–6 (2018)
Hassanalian, M., Abdelkefi, A: Classifications, applications, and design challenges of drones: A review. In: Progress in Aerospace Sciences, vol. 91, pp 99–131 (2017)
Ren, W: Consensus strategies for cooperative control of vehicle formations. In: IET Control Theory and Applications 1, vol. 2, pp 505–512 (2007)
Proskurnikov, AV, Ming, C: Consensus in multi-agent systems. In: Webster, J. (ed.) Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics EngineeringPublisher. Wiley (2016)
Godsil, C., Royle, G.: Algebraic graph theory. In: Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 207. Berlin, Germany, Springer-Verlag (2001)
Merris, R.: Laplacian matrices of a graph: A survey. In: Linear Algebra its Applications, vol. 197, pp 143–176 (1994)
Wu, C.W.: Agreement and consensus problems in groups of autonomous agents with linear dynamics. In: 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, vol. 1, pp 292–295. Kobe (2005)
Ren, W, Beard, R.W., McLain, T.W.: Coordination variables and consensus building in multiple vehicle systems. In: Kumar, V., Leonard, N.E., Morse, A.S. (eds.) Cooperative Control, volume 309 of Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, pp 171–188 (2005)
Mirzaev, I., Gunawardena, J.: Laplacian dynamics on general graphs. Bull. Math. Biol. 75(11) (2013)
Ren, W.: Consensus strategies for cooperative control of vehicle formations. IET Control Theory Appl. 1(2), 505–512 (2007)
Shakhatreh, H., et al.: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): A survey on civil applications and key research challenges. IEEE Access 7, 48572–48634 (2019)
Liu, H, Liu, H.H.T., Chi, C., Zhai, Y, Zhan, X.: Navigation information augmented artificial potential field algorithm for collision avoidance in UAV formation flight. Aerosp. Syst. 3, 229–241 (2020)
Olfati-Saber, R.: Flocking for multi-agent dynamic systems: algorithms and theory. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 51(3), 401–420 (2006)
Zhang, J., Wang, W., Zhang, Z., Luo, K., Liu, J.: Cooperative control of UAV cluster formation based on distributed consensus. In: 2019 IEEE 15th International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA), Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2019, pp 788–793 (2019)
Mukherjee, S., Namuduri, K.: Formation control of UAVs for connectivity maintenance and collision avoidance. In: 2019 IEEE National Aerospace and Electronics Conference (NAECON), pp 126–130, Dayton, OH, USA (2019)
Oh, K., Park, M., Ahn, H.: A survey of multi-agent formation control. Automatica 53, 424–440 (2015)
Yasin, J.N., Mohamed, S.A.S., Haghbayan, M., Heikkonen, J., Tenhunen, H., Plosila, J.: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): Collision avoidance systems and approaches, vol. 8, pp 105139–105155 (2020)
Turpin, M., Michael, N., Kumar, V.: Decentralized formation control with variable shapes for aerial robots. In: 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp 23–30 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2012.6225196
Furci, M., Casadei, G., Naldi, R., Sanfelice, R.G., Marconi, L.: An open-source architecture for control and coordination of a swarm of micro-quadrotors. In: 2015 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), pp 139–146 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2015.7152285
Faelden, G.E., Maningo, J.M., Nakano, R.C., Bandala, A., Vicerra, R.R., Dadios, E.: Implementation of swarm aggregation in quadrotor swarms using an artificial potential function model. In: 2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON), pp 2021–2026 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/TENCON.2016.7848380
Toksöz, M.A., Oğuz, S., Gazi, V.: Decentralized Formation Control of a Swarm of Quadrotor Helicopters. In: 2019 IEEE 15th International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA), pp 1006–1013 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCA.2019.8899628
Saif, O, Fantoni, I., Zavala, A.: Distributed integral control of multiple UAVs, Precise flocking and navigation. IET Control Theory & Appl. 13 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-cta.2018.5684
Liu, Y., et al: A distributed control approach to formation balancing and maneuvering of multiple multirotor UAVs. IEEE Trans. Robot. 34(4), 870–882 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2018.2853606
Yu, B, Dong, X., Shi, Z., Zhong, Y.: Formation control for quadrotor swarm systems: Algorithms and experiments. In: Proceedings of the 32nd Chinese Control Conference, pp 7099–7104 (2013)
Dong, X., Hua, Y., Zhou, Y., Ren, Z., Zhong, Y.: Theory and experiment on formation-containment control of multiple multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle systems. IEEE Trans. Autom. Sci. Eng. 16(1), 229–240 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/TASE.2018.2792327
Cao, S., Lee, C., Duan, H., Zhu, J., Yuan, S., Song, W.: Quadrotor swarm flight experimentation inspired by pigeon flock topology. In: 2019 IEEE 15th International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA), pp 657–662 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCA.2019.8899745
Hu, J., Zhang, H., Liu, L., Zhu, X., Zhao, C., Pan, Q.: Convergent multiagent formation control with collision avoidance. IEEE Trans. Robot. 36(6), 1805–1818 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2020.2998766
Zhao, H., Wu, S.: A method to estimate relative position and attitude of cooperative UAVs based on monocular vision. In: 2018 IEEE CSAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference (CGNCC), pp 1–6 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/GNCC42960.2018.9018876
Guo, K., Li, X., Xie, L.: Ultra-wideband and odometry-based cooperative relative localization with application to multi-UAV formation control. IEEE Trans. Cybern. 50(6), 2590–2603 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/TCYB.2019.2905570
Shen, H., Zong, Q., Lu, H., Zhang, X., Tian, B., He, L.: A distributed approach for lidar-based relative state estimation of multi-UAV in GPS-denied environments. Chin. J. Aeronaut. 2021, ISSN 1000-9361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2021.04.021
Ma, P., Ji, J., Sui, J., Lei, M.: Research on cooperative formation flight control of multi-UAV with communication time delay. In: 2021 International Conference on Control Science and Electric Power Systems (CSEPS), pp 54–58 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/CSEPS53726.2021.00017
Vazquez Trejo, J.A., et al: Robust formation control based on leader-following consensus in multi-agent systems with faults in the information exchange: application in a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles. IEEE Access 9, 104940–104949 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3098303
Olfati-Saber, R., Shamma, J.S.: Consensus filters for sensor networks and distributed sensor fusion. In: Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp 6698–6703, Seville, Spain (2005)
Olfati-Saber, R.: Distributed Kalman filter with embedded consensus filters. In: Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp 8179–8184, Seville, Spain (2005)
Li, W., Wang, Z., Wei, G., Ma, L., Hu, J., Ding, D.: A survey on multisensor fusion and consensus filtering for sensor networks. Discret. Dyn. Nat. Soc. 2015(Article ID 683701), 12 (2015)
Olfati-Saber, R.: Distributed Kalman filtering for sensor networks. In: 2007 46th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp 5492–5498, New Orleans, LA, USA (2007)
Grocholsky, B.: Information-Theoretic Control of Multiple Sensor Platforms (2002)
Esmailifar, S.M., Saghafi, F.: Cooperative localization of marine targets by UAVs. Mech. Syst. Sig. Process. 87, 23–42 (2017)
Olfati-Saber, R.: Distributed tracking for mobile sensor networks with information-driven mobility. In: 2007 American Control Conference, pp 4606–4612 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACC.2007.4282261
Sujit, P.B., Saripalli, S., Sousa, J.B.: Unmanned aerial vehicle path following: A survey and analysis of algorithms for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicless. IEEE Control Syst. Mag. 34(1), 42–59 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/MCS.2013.2287568
Olfati-Saber, R., Jalalkamali, P.: Collaborative target tracking using distributed Kalman filtering on mobile sensor networks. In: Proceedings of the 2011 American Control Conference, pp 1100–1105 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACC.2011.5990979
Olfati-Saber, R., Jalalkamali, P.: Coupled distributed estimation and control for mobile sensor networks. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 57(10), 2609–2614 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2012.2190184
Zhou, R., Feng, Y., Di, B., et al: Multi- UAV cooperative target tracking with bounded noise for connectivity preservation. Front. Inform. Technol. Electron. Eng. 21, 1494–1503 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.1900617
Dong, Z., Liu, Y.: Optimal observation configuration method for multi-UAV distributed cooperative target tracking. In: 2018 IEEE CSAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference (CGNCC), pp 1–6 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/GNCC42960.2018.9018658
Semnani, S.H., Basir, O.A.: Semi-flocking algorithm for motion control of mobile sensors in large-scale surveillance systems. IEEE Trans. Cybern. 45(1), 129–137 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1109/TCYB.2014.2328659
Sun, Z., Garcia de Marina, H., Anderson, B.D.O., Yu, C.: Collaborative target-tracking control using multiple fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles with constant speeds. J. Guid. Control Dyn. 44(2), 238–250 (2021). https://doi.org/10.2514/1.G005092
Hu, C., Zhang, Z., Tao, Y., Wang, N.: Decentralized real-time estimation and tracking for unknown ground moving target using UAVs. IEEE Access 7, 1808–1817 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2885776
Fu, X., Liu, K., Gao, X.: Multi-UAVs communication-aware cooperative target tracking. Appl. Sci. 8(6), 870 (2018)
Oh, H., Kim, S., Tsourdos, A., White, B.: Decentralised road-map assisted ground target tracking using a team of UAVs. In: 9th IET Data Fusion and Target Tracking Conference (DF&TT 2012): Algorithms and Applications, pp 1–6 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1049/cp.2012.0407
Funding
Open access funding provided by Politecnico di Torino within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. No funding was received for conducting this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The authors F.F. Lizzio, E. Capello and G. Guglieri all contributed equally to this work.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Lizzio, F.F., Capello, E. & Guglieri, G. A Review of Consensus-based Multi-agent UAV Implementations. J Intell Robot Syst 106, 43 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-022-01743-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-022-01743-9