Placement of unmanned aerial vehicles as communication relays in two-tiered multi-agent system:clustering based methods

The network performance and the unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)number are important objectives when UAVs are placed as communication relays to enhance the multi-agent information exchange.The problem is a non-deterministic polynomial hard(NP-hard)multi-objective optimization problem,instead of generating a Pareto solution,this work focuses on considering both objectives at the same level so as to achieve a balanced solution between them.Based on the property that agents connected to the same UAV are a cluster,two clustering-based algorithms,M-K-means(MKM)and modified fast search and find density of peaks(MFSFDP)methods,are first proposed.Since the former algorithm requires too much computational time and the latter one requires too many relays,an algorithm for the balanced network performance and relay number(BPN)is proposed by discretizing the area to avoid missing the optimal relay positions and defining a new local density function to reflect the network performance metric.Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms are feasible and effective.Comparisons between these algorithms show that the BPN algorithm uses fewer relay UAVs than the MFSFDP and classic set-covering based algorithm,and its computational time is far less than the MKM algorithm.

Event-triggered leader-following formation control for multi-agent systems under communication faults: application to a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles

The main contribution of this paper is the design of an event-triggered formation control for leader-following consensus in second-order multi-agent systems(MASs)under communication faults.All the agents must follow the trajectories of a virtual leader despite communication faults considered as smooth time-varying delays dependent on the distance between the agents.Linear matrix inequalities(LMIs)-based conditions are obtained to synthesize a controller gain that guarantees stability of the synchronization error.Based on the closed-loop system,an event-triggered mechanism is designed to reduce the control law update and information exchange in order to reduce energy consumption.The proposed approach is implemented in a real platform of a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)under communication faults.A comparison between a state-of-the-art technique and the proposed technique has been provided,demonstrating the performance improvement brought by the proposed approach.

Fault Tolerant Control Scheme Design for Formation Flight Control System of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The command tracking problem of formation flight control system(FFCS)for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)with sensor faults is discussed.And the objective of the addressed control problem is to design a robust fault tolerant tracking controller such that,for the disturbances and sensor faults,the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable with a given disturbance attenuation level.A robust fault tolerant tracking control scheme,combining an observer with H∞ performance,is proposed.Furthermore,it is proved that the designed controller can guarantee asymptotic stability of FFCS despite sensor faults.Finally,a simulation of two UAV formations is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Cooperative Cluster-Based Data Collection for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent times,sixth generation(6G)communication technologies have become a hot research topic because of maximum throughput and low delay services for mobile users.It encompasses several heterogeneous resource and communication standard in ensuring incessant availability of service.At the same time,the development of 6G enables the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)in offering cost and time-efficient solution to several applications like healthcare,surveillance,disaster management,etc.In UAV networks,energy efficiency and data collection are considered the major process for high quality network communication.But these procedures are found to be challenging because of maximum mobility,unstable links,dynamic topology,and energy restricted UAVs.These issues are solved by the use of artificial intelligence(AI)and energy efficient clustering techniques for UAVs in the 6G environment.With this inspiration,this work designs an artificial intelligence enabled cooperative cluster-based data collection technique for unmanned aerial vehicles(AECCDC-UAV)in 6G environment.The proposed AECCDC-UAV technique purposes for dividing the UAV network as to different clusters and allocate a cluster head(CH)to each cluster in such a way that the energy consumption(ECM)gets minimized.The presented AECCDC-UAV technique involves a quasi-oppositional shuffled shepherd optimization(QOSSO)algorithm for selecting the CHs and construct clusters.The QOSSO algorithm derives a fitness function involving three input parameters residual energy of UAVs,distance to neighboring UAVs,and degree of UAVs.The performance of the AECCDC-UAV technique is validated in many aspects and the obtained experimental values demonstration promising results over the recent state of art methods.

Nonlinear tight formation control of multiple UAVs based on model predictive control

A tight formation of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) has many advantages, such as fuel saving and deceiving enemy radar during battlefield entry. As a result, research on UAVs in close formation has received much attention, and the controller design for formation holding has become a popular research topic in the control field. However, there are many unknown disturbances in tight formation, and the tail aircraft is disturbed by the wake. This paper establishes a mathematical model of wake vortices for tail aircraft that considers uncertainty and strong interference. Two UAVs are simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamics software, followed by the design of a semiphysical simulation model predictive control(MPC) scheme that suppresses uncertainty and interference sufficiently to enable the tail aircraft to accurately track the lead aircraft and maintain a stable, tight formation. The tight formation controller is verified by numerical simulation and semiphysical simulation. The results show that the designed controller has an excellent control effect in the case of disturbance caused by the wake vortex.

Three-dimensional formation keeping of multi-UAV based on consensus

Consensus is an emerging technique using neighbor-to-neighbor interaction to generate steering commands for cooperative control of multiple vehicles. A three-dimensional formation keeping strategy for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(multi-UAV) is proposed based on consensus, aiming at maintaining a specified geometric configuration. A formation control algorithm with guidance and corresponding flight controllers is given, managing position and attitude, respectively. In order to follow a three-dimensional predefined flight path, by introducing the tracking orders as reference states into the consensus, the formation control algorithm is designed, following the predefined flight path and maintaining geometric configuration simultaneously. The flight controllers are constructed by nonlinear dynamic inverse, including attitude design and velocity design. With the whole system composed of a nonlinear six-degree-of-freedom UAV model, the formation control algorithm and the flight controllers, the formation keeping strategy is closed loop and with full states. In simulation, three-dimensional formation flight demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

Dynamic affine formation control of networked under-actuated quad-rotor UAVs with three-dimensional patterns

This paper focuses on the solution to the dynamic affine formation control problem for multiple networked underactuated quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)to achieve a configuration that preserves collinearity and ratios of distances for a target configuration.In particular,it is investigated that the quad-rotor UAVs are steered to track a reference linear velocity while maintaining a desired three-dimensional target formation.Firstly,by integrating the properties of the affine transformation and the stress matrix,the design of the target formation is convenient and applicable for various three-dimensional geometric patterns.Secondly,a distributed control method is proposed under a hierarchical framework.By introducing an intermediary control input for each quad-rotor UAV in the position loop,the necessary thrust input and the desired attitude are extracted.In the attitude loop,the desired attitude represented by the unit quaternion is tracked by the designed torque input.Both conditions of linear velocity unavailability and mutual collision avoidance are also tackled.In terms of Lyapunov theory,it is prooved that the overall closed-loop error system is asymptotically stable.Finally,two illustrative examples are simulated to validate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.

The Performance Analysis for Distributed Collaborative Beamforming Transmission of Clustered Mobile Sensor Network

Sensor nodes cannot directly communicate with the distant unmanned aerial vehicle( UAV) for their low transmission power. Distributed collaborative beamforming from sensor nodes within a cluster is proposed to provide high speed data transmission to the distant UAV. The bit error ratio( BER) closed-form expression of distributed collaborative beamforming transmission with mobile sensor nodes has been derived. Furthermore,based on the theoretical BER analysis and the numerical results,we have analyzed the impacts of nodes 'mobility,number of sensor nodes,transmission power and the elevation angle of UAV on the BER performance of collaborative beamforming. And we come to the following conclusions: the mobility of sensor nodes largely decreases the BER performance; when the position deviation radius is large,incensement in power cannot improve BER anymore; the size of cluster should be bigger than 10 for the purpose of achieving good BER performance in Rayleigh fading channel.

Blockchain-Based Data Acquisition with Privacy Protection in UAV Cluster Network

The unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)self-organizing network is composed of multiple UAVs with autonomous capabilities according to a certain structure and scale,which can quickly and accurately complete complex tasks such as path planning,situational awareness,and information transmission.Due to the openness of the network,the UAV cluster is more vulnerable to passive eavesdropping,active interference,and other attacks,which makes the system face serious security threats.This paper proposes a Blockchain-Based Data Acquisition(BDA)scheme with privacy protection to address the data privacy and identity authentication problems in the UAV-assisted data acquisition scenario.Each UAV cluster has an aggregate unmanned aerial vehicle(AGV)that can batch-verify the acquisition reports within its administrative domain.After successful verification,AGV adds its signcrypted ciphertext to the aggregation and uploads it to the blockchain for storage.There are two chains in the blockchain that store the public key information of registered entities and the aggregated reports,respectively.The security analysis shows that theBDAconstruction can protect the privacy and authenticity of acquisition data,and effectively resist a malicious key generation center and the public-key substitution attack.It also provides unforgeability to acquisition reports under the Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem(ECDLP)assumption.The performance analysis demonstrates that compared with other schemes,the proposed BDA construction has lower computational complexity and is more suitable for the UAV cluster network with limited computing power and storage capacity.

Nonlinear direct data-driven control for UAV formation flight system

This paper proposes the nonlinear direct data-driven control from theoretical analysis and practical engineering,i.e.,unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)formation flight system.Firstly,from the theoretical point of view,consider one nonlinear closedloop system with a nonlinear plant and nonlinear feed-forward controller simultaneously.To avoid the complex identification process for that nonlinear plant,a nonlinear direct data-driven control strategy is proposed to design that nonlinear feed-forward controller only through the input-output measured data sequence directly,whose detailed explicit forms are model inverse method and approximated analysis method.Secondly,from the practical point of view,after reviewing the UAV formation flight system,nonlinear direct data-driven control is applied in designing the formation controller,so that the followers can track the leader’s desired trajectory during one small time instant only through solving one data fitting problem.Since most natural phenomena have nonlinear properties,the direct method must be the better one.Corresponding system identification and control algorithms are required to be proposed for those nonlinear systems,and the direct nonlinear controller design is the purpose of this paper.

复杂环境下无人机集群运动一致性的群体熵度量

针对无人机集群在多障碍物或空间受限等复杂环境中协同飞行时无法实现群体自主的协同演化及适应环境、态势的变化,导致整个群体运动产生振荡、失控等一致性差的问题,提出一种无人机集群运动一致性的群体熵度量理论。通过建立群体运动行为稳定程度的熵度量函数,作为个体之间协同运动的适应度值指标,实现复杂环境下无人机集群运动一致性的自适应调节。最后进行仿真实验,相比传统无人机集群算法,引入群体熵度量的无人机运动集聚收敛速度提高30%,复杂环境中集群运动的熵值波动范围下降21.8%,有效证明群体熵度量对于无人机集群运动一致性的提高。

基于自抗扰方法的无人机控制律设计

针对多平台、多任务的无人机飞行控制律的快速开发问题,提出一种基于自抗扰方法的无人机控制律架构,设计了可复用的扩展状态观测器及微分跟踪器,研究对比了其在3种具有较大差异的无人机平台中的应用,使7 000 kg的超音速UAV_A获得了更优的敏捷性结果,在60 kg的缩比UAV_B完成了5.8g的半滚倒转大过载机动飞行试验,基于10 kg的平直翼UAV_C实现了12架机紧编队的精确轨迹控制飞行试验。仿真及试飞结果表明:所提自抗扰控制结构响应快速、控制精度高、鲁棒性强,能够较好地适应多类无人机、面向多种任务场景的控制需求,且不需调参就能够获得较好的控制效果,为飞行控制算法设计提供了新的技术途径。

面向任务的无人飞行器自组网OLSR协议

无人飞行器(unmanned aerial vehicle,UAV)自组网的路由研究多以性能指标出发、忽略无人飞行器网络的任务驱动性,与实际需求动态耦合弱、适用性不强。针对该问题基于无人飞行器多任务网络提出了面向任务的无人飞行器联盟组网架构,提出了无人飞行器联盟的任务自适应优化链路状态路由协议(task adaptive optimized link state routing,TA-OLSR)。基于模糊逻辑设计拓扑稳定度计算方法,利用拓扑稳定度实现TA-OLSR控制消息的自适应广播,同时结合稳定度设计新的多点中继选择策略。仿真结果表明,TA-OLSR算法能从宏观面向任务的角度出发,实现不同任务下的良好自适应性,提升数据包投递率,减少冗余信息传播,降低网络开销,有效提高整体网络性能。

Trophallaxis network control approach to formation flight of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles

A novel network control method based on trophallaxis mechanism is applied to the formation flight problem for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).Firstly,the multiple UAVs formation flight system based on trophallaxis network control is given.Then,the model of leader-follower formation flight with a virtual leader based on trophallaxis network control is presented,and the influence of time delays on the network performance is analyzed.A particle swarm optimization(PSO)-based formation controller is proposed for solving the leader-follower formation flight system.The proposed method is applied to five UAVs for achieving a 'V' formation,and a series of experimental results show its feasibility and validity.The proposed control algorithm is also a promising control strategy for formation flight of multiple unmanned underwater vehicles(UUVs),unmanned ground vehicles(UGVs),missiles and satellites.

Semi-global leader-following consensus-based formation flight of unmanned aerial vehicles

In this paper,we investigate a formation control problem of multi-agent systems(specifically a group of unmanned aerial vehicles)based on a semi-global leader-following consensus approach with both the leader and the followers subject to input saturation.Utilizing the low gain feedback design technique,a distributed static control protocol and a distributed adaptive control protocol are constructed.The former solves the problem under an assumption that the communication network is undirected,and it depends on the global information of the graph.For the latter,we relax the undirected graph to directed graph.Moreover,an adaptive updating gain is designed to avoid using the global information of the communication network.It is shown that the consensus protocols can solve the semi-global leader-following consensus problem if the leader agent is globally reachable.The results are verified successfully by both simulation and real flight tests.

基于一致性理论的无人机编队控制与集结方法

针对无人机运动学模型特点和远距离成形问题,提出一种基于改进一致性算法的无人机集结-成形策略。建立能直观描述编队队形的坐标系,根据纵向和横航向解耦的带自动驾驶仪的无人机三自由度运动学模型的特点,考虑无人机机动性能约束,对一致性算法进行改进,实现对无人机速度、航向和飞行高度的控制,提出编队队形控制算法。针对无人机初始间距大带来的调参问题,增加集结过程,并利用粒子群算法优化集结速度,避免航迹冲突,集结结束后再采用所提算法生成无人机航迹,提升算法的适应性。仿真结果表明:所提算法能使无人机在满足机动性约束的情况下,形成稳定队形;相比于直接成形法,所提策略提高改进一致性算法的适应性和安全性。

Affine formation tracking control of unmanned aerial vehicles

The affine formation tracking problem for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)is considered in this paper,where fixed-wing UAVs are modeled as unicycle-type agents with asymmetrical speed constraints.A group of UAVs are required to generate and track a time-varying target formation obtained by affinely transforming a nominal formation.To handle this problem,a distributed control law based on stress matrix is proposed under the leader-follower control scheme.It is proved,theoretically,that followers can converge to the desired positions and achieve affine transformations while tracking diverse trajectories.Furthermore,a saturated control strategy is proposed to meet the speed constraints of fixed-wing UAVs,and numerical simulations are executed to verify the effectiveness of our proposed affine formation tracking control strategy in improving maneuverability.

异构多智能体输出调节量化自适应跟踪控制

考虑到无人机-无人船动力学模型中部分状态信息丢失、输出降维和延迟量化输入等复杂情形,提出了一种适用于解决异构多智能体系统一致性跟踪控制问题的输出调节量化自适应方案。利用降维的输出信息设计量化反馈控制输入及自适应律,实现异构多智能体编队系统内全维状态信息向参考模型的一致性跟踪,基于Lyapunov方法的稳定性分析证明了各变量的一致有界性,将该一致性跟踪控制方法应用于无人机-无人船编队系统中,通过数值仿真验证了该异构多智能体编队系统在平面内实现各变量一致性跟踪的能力。

基于深度强化学习的无人机集群数字孪生编队避障

无人机集群在各个领域中扮演着重要角色,具有丰富的应用场景.然而,将深度强化学习方法应用于自主无人机面临着诸多严峻挑战.本文基于多智能体深度强化学习,通过使用局部信息建立单个无人机的状态空间,并使用多智能体近端策略优化(Multi-agent proximal policy optimization,MAPPO)的在线策略算法来训练策略网络,从而克服了环境的不确定性和对全局信息的依赖.同时,引入了数字孪生的概念,为资源紧张型算法提供了新思路.为了解决采样困难和资源紧张的问题,基于数字孪生技术,构建了一个用于无人机编队避障策略模型训练的架构.首先,构建了多个数字孪生环境,用于强化学习算法在任务开始之前进行交互采样的预训练,以使集群具备基本的任务能力.然后,使用在真实环境中采集的数据进行补充训练,使得集群能够更好地完成任务.对采用这种两阶段训练架构的效果进行了对比,同时与其他策略算法进行比较,验证了MAPPO的样本效率性能.最后,设计了实际飞行验证测试,验证了从孪生环境中获得的策略模型的实用性和可靠性.

基于多密度流聚类的UAV-NOMA用户分簇与功率分配算法

针对无人机(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle,UAV)辅助非正交多址(Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access,NOMA)下行通信系统,提出了最大化和速率的用户动态分簇与功率分配方案.考虑用户服务质量与UAV位置约束,建立了和速率最大化的优化问题.由于目标函数的非凸性,将原问题解耦为三个子问题,分别优化UAV位置部署与用户连接、用户动态分簇、功率分配以提高系统性能.首先,基于K-means算法设计了UAV位置部署与用户连接方案,以减小路损为目的确定UAV最佳部署位置,同时选择其服务的最优用户群;其次,改进多密度流聚类(Multi-Density Stream Clustering, MDSC)算法,提出了单UAV下用户静态与动态分簇方案,静态分簇方案可自适应平衡簇数与簇用户数,并获得较大的簇内用户信道增益差异,动态分簇方案则针对用户移动属性,制定了即时更新策略;最后,使用分式规划(Fractional Programming,FP)二次变换的方法,引入辅助变量将原非凸问题变换为凸问题,交替优化辅助变量与功率分配因子,获得原非凸问题的次优解.仿真结果表明,与其他算法相比,本文分簇方案能获得更大的簇内信道差异与更小的簇内用户数标准差,同时用户系统性能也获得了显著提升.