Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Formation Inspired by Bird Flocking and Foraging Behavior

This paper considers a multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) formation problem and proposes a new method inspired by bird flocking and foraging behavior. A bidirectional communication network, a navigator based on bird foraging behavior, a controller based on bird interaction and a movement switch are developed for multi-UAV formation. Lyapunov′s second method and mechanical energy method are adopted for stability analysis. Parameters of the controller are optimized by Levy-flight based pigeon inspired optimization (Levy-PIO). Patrol missions along a square and an S shaped trajectory are designed to test this formation method. Simulations prove that the bird flocking and foraging strategy can accomplish the mission and obtain satisfying performance.