Dmytruk, Andriy (Czech Technical University in Prague), Nascimento, Tiago (Universidade Federal da Paraiba), Ahmad, Afzal (Czech Technical University in Prague), Baca, Tomas (Czech Technical University in Prague), Saska, Martin (Czech Technical University in Prague)

Safe Tightly-Constrained UAV Swarming inGNSS-Denied Environments

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Swarms I" (FrC3), Friday, June 18, 2021, 15:00−15:20, Edessa

2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), June 15-18, 2021, Athens, Greece

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 25, 2024

Abstract

A decentralized algorithm for flocking of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in environments with high obstacle density is proposed in this work. The method combines a local planning loop with bio-inspired swarming rules for navigating a compact UAV flock in a real workspace without relying on external infrastructures, such as motion capture system and GNSS. The group stability and coherence are achieved by employing a purposely designed onboard UVDAR system for mutual localization of teammates in local proximity of each UAV. The required robustness and scalability of the multi-UAV system are therefore achieved without any need for communication among the swarm particle. Such minimal sensory and communication requirements have allowed the system to become a backup technique for centralized multi-robot systems in case of communication and GNSS dropout. The proposed approach has been verified in numerous simulations and real experiments inside a forest that represents one of the most challenging environments for deployment of compact groups of aerial vehicles.