Fully autonomous flying: from collective motion in bird flocks to unmanned aerial vehicle autonomous swarms

1 Introduction The unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV),an aircraft with no pilots on board,appeals to widespread applications in military and civil fields[1].In complex and dynamic mission environments,a single UAV

1 Introduction The unmanned aerial vehicle （UAV）, an aircraft with no pilots on board, appeals to widespread appli- cations in military and civil fields [1]. In complex and dynamic mission environments, a single UAV will suffer from fatal drawbacks, such as the limitation in sensing range, computing capacity, and weapon pow- er. Therefore, the usage of UAV autonomous swarms for mission implementation will be a better choice for the dilemma single UAVs plunge in, which requires the capacity of precise real-time perception of emergency, autonomous decision making, and mission re-planning, based on pre-programmed flight plan or more complex dynamic automation system instead of remote control from ground control stations.