Real-time Leader-follower Uav Formation Flight Based on Modified Nonlinear Guidance

To perform formation flight of multiple UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), an accurate guidance law is required. Existing guidance law based on nonlinear path-following guidance method provides outstanding path following performance. However, the nonlinear guidance law does not reflect the characteristics of UAV, and therefore the performance of the guidance law may be degraded in the real environment. In this study, model-based modified nonlinear guidance law is proposed so that a lateral acceleration command generated by the proposed guidance law coincides with actual lateral acceleration of the UAV. Utilizing the proposed nonlinear guidance law, leaderfollower formation flight controller is designed. Multi-UAV simulation based on the identified linear model of UAV is performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. Hardware system of multiple UAVs is constructed, and flight test is conducted to validate the proposed algorithm.