6-DOF Nonlinear Simulation of Vision-based Formation Flight

This paper presents an adaptive guidance and control law algorithm for implementation on a pair of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in a 6 DOF leader-follower formation flight simulation. The objective of the simulation study is to prepare for a flight test involving a pair of UAVs in formation flight where the follower aircraft will be equipped with an onboard camera to estimate the relative distance and orientation to the leader aircraft. The follower guidance law is an adaptive acceleration based guidance law designed for the purpose of tracking a maneuvering leader aircraft. We also discuss the limitations of a preceding version of the guidance algorithm shown in a previous paper. Finally, we discuss the design of an adaptive controller (autopilot) to track the commands from the guidance algorithm. Simulation results for different leader maneuvers are presented and analyzed.