The 8th International Conference on

Computer Science & Education (ICCSE 2013)

April 26-28, 2013. Colombo, Sri Lanka

SaB3.6

VAV Formation Flight Control and Formation Switch Strategy

Youping Ma

Delin Luo, Wenlong Xu, Shunxiang Wu

China Helicopter Research and Development Institute

Jingdezhen, 333001, China

Department of Automation
XiamenUniversity, Xiamen, 361005, China
Email: luodelinI204@xmu.edu.cn

Abstract-During th e formation

fli gh t time, the Unmanned

of this consideration, we put our efforts on UAV formation

transformation technology in this paper and taken into account
the effectiveness of the designed method by simulated
verification and comparative analysis.

Aerial vehicles (UA Ys) h a ve to transform their flight formation

in many cases, such as environmental change, th e modification

of th e task and some UAV's leaving of the formation. During the

time to ch ange the formation, the most important thing is to
avoid UA Ys crash into each other, then, they should finish the

II. FORMATION KEEPING OFUAVS

transformation process in certain time. This paper firstly foc uses

A. Formation control model

on th e UAY formation keeping by using Proportion Integration

Differentiation

(Pill )

control method. Secondly, several control

strategy are designed for formation transformation. Then, use

th e above methods to complete the formation transformation.
Finally, the effectiveness of UAVs formation transformation is
ta ken into account by simulated verification and comparative
analysis.
Kryword.Y--unmanned aerial vehicle, formation flight, formation
control, formation transform

I. INTRODUCTION
Through decades of development, UAV technology
gradually becomes perfect even tend to mature. At the same
time, the application ofUAV is increasingly wide and becomes
more and more important in many military and civil tasks, such
as battlefield monitoring and investigation, border patrol, forest
fire detection, public security monitoring and so on. Multiple
UA V formation flight and carry out a task is a hot issue in
UA V research field for the formation flight muItip IeUA V has
obvious advantage to single UA V. F or example, it is easily
limited by the angle of sensor when a singleUAV carry out a
task for it can not observe the target area from different
positions. ill the same situation, when face a wide range search
task, it is hard for a single UA V to cover the whole
surveillance area effectively. When it comes to execute strike
mission, there are much limitation to single UA V in many
aspects, such as fight range, lethal radius, and attack capability
and so on, that will reduce the success rate of the whole task. ill
addition, once a UAV breaks down in the midway, it has to
give up the task and get back immediately. It would most likely
to delay the opportunity even destroy the whole battle plan.
One of the most important problems is formation keeping for
UA V in formation flight research and we should solve it first.
Nowadays, there are a lot of relevant research literatures of
formation control [1- 11]. Formation transform of UAVs is
another important problem, UA Vs formation usually has to
transform from one to another. For instance, the UAVs
formation enters into a narrow canyon from wide airspace,
some UA Vs quit from the formation, state changing or plan
changing and some other situation would require the formation
transform in a certain time. At present, the research onUAV
formation transformation technology is not very common. Out

978-1-4673-4463-0/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

F ormation keeping is most important to UAV formation

flight. Many scholars used various kinds of methods to solve
the formation flight control problem. This paper use
distributed structure control, put one of theUA V# 1 as Leader
UA V (LU), its main task is to track the reference path, other
UA Vs as Follower UA V ( FU ). The tracking strategy is that
everyUA V put the nearestUA V as tracking target and follow
it. ill order to keep the formation, FU should calculate a virtual
point as the certain position which it must hold in the flight
formation. ill this case, the whole formation is constitute by
several basic units of twin-UA V subqueue, thus keeping the
formation on the whole.
Put three UA Vs compose an equilateral triangle formation
as an example , the formation keeping and control form is
shown in F igI.

Fig 1. UAVs formation keeping geometrical relationship and control strategy

Where, ld is the expectation distance between UAVs,

(x"y,)is the position coordinates ofUA V#i,
ofUAV#i, Bjis the yaw angle of UAV#i,
variable along X direction of UAV#i,
Y

is the velocity

uix

is the control

uiy

is the control

direction ofUAV#i, 2' is the virtual point of

UA V#2 should flight to 3' is the virtual point of UA V#3

264

variable along

Vi

should flight to.

x/vj

is the lateral axis of velocity coordinates

SaB3.6

system, along the same direction as

vl
VI; Y1

III. FORMATTON TRANSFORMA TTON CONTROL

is the horizontal

axis of velocity coordinates system. The dynamical equations

ofUAV#i have the form:

u.
viy uiy
I vix Vi cos (Ji
lviy Vi sin (Ji
r v..'X

lX

threats, they need to make an obstacle avoidance flight; in

some special circumstances, such as the narrow valley,

(I)

U AVs should shrirlk formation to through it; when the

battlef ield situation change,

UAVs need to change the

formation in favor of battlefield information acquiring and

enemy's target attackirlg; when any UAV has unpredictable

Suppose, whenUA V# 1 track a reference path, the position

coordinate at time t is (Xd(t ), Y,/t)) . The reference path is

situation and quit from the formation the formation also

need be adjusted to give full p lay to the advantages of

generating in certain method according to task and

circu mstances. During the flight time, theUAV has to modiJY
the reference path online when it meets with obstacle or
unexpected threats. After avoiding it, the UAV should
continue tracking the reference path.

formation.

I sin
ld cos 81 - -l
I X 7' = x I- d 81
2
2

I
I
..[;,
.
lY2' = YI- ----;-ld 81 + -:;ld cos81

The most important thirlg durirlg formation

adjust or transform process is to ensure safety of UAVs,

avoid them crash into each other , therefore, we use the
transformation method based on 1- 1 model [12] to control

According to the geometrical relationship shown in F ig 1,

the virtual point's position coordinates ofUA V#2 which is a
FU ofUAV#2 given by
r

When U AVs meet emergencies, such as unpredictable

obstacles, the air defense radar of enemy and some other

the distance between UAVs. This model is shown irl figure

2.

, ()
"q- 'L" 2
/
/

..[;,

UAV#2 /

(2)

S111

,/

,{"
\

The virtual point's position coordinates ofUAV#3 which is

also a FU ofUAV#2 given by

I
,f3
sin 8
I x3' =xI 2 ld cos81 +-I
d
1
2

13 s.
I s8
I
lY3, =Yl --I
d 11181 --ld co 1
2
2
r

B.

- -

(3)

Design of the controller

Fig 2.

According to the analysis, in order to keep the formation, we

mainly should control the flight position ofUAVs. Here we use
the PID control which isF simple but effective. To U A V#i, the
control equation can be shown as:

In F ig 2, UA V# 3 track UA V# I andUAV# 2. The control

goal is that in adjustment process, let the distances ofUAV# 3

to UAV# 1 and UAV# 2 /31 and/32 respectively convergence

de

111 IX =KpXeIX +K]X f ZX dt+K[JX

dl

dc
I
zy
lu.Iy =KPy e.Iy +KIy fe.Iy dt+KDy dt
c

to expected distances. The motion equation of UA V# 3 is

given by:

(4)

131 VI cos(B1 - QJ31)- V3 cos(B3 - QJ31)

132 V2 cos(B2 - QJ32)- V3 cos(B3 - QJ32)

, K

and

are proportion, integration and

= Xl -xd(t)
lCly=YI-Yd(t)
c

Written in the matrix form

Lll

differentiation of position error. To UA V# 1, the error can be

given by

Jl

(5)

Jl

ej y

X -x '
j
j

ll

Y j - Y j'

2,3

(8)

Vll

I coslJ'31

B -l
-

the same way, the error ofUA V # 2 andUA V# 3 are shown

as follows:
=

-BllV3

Where

In

ejX

(7)

--

Where

1- 1 model

(6)

And the control form is

265

coslJ'32

sin lJ'3
1l
sin lJ'32

SaB3.6

We can find, whenqi31

"

-'x

I
-'
l y
"

qi32

dV3x
---

IA

dt

(9)

dV3y
--dt

mr,(n

. . .

,-1,0,1,"')

is a singular matrix, which means UA V#3,

UAV#2 in one line or

j V3X 1
V3

l yJ

Ell

,Bll

3!

UA V# 1 and

ji

i!

61

'

ll

l 1j

l
q

-/ ) J

Where p , q are positive integers, furthermore

Tr .

(11)

Le

"'"(d31-'31(0)

*,

"2 ","(d32-'32(0)

-'31

/-
_

----+

\\ '
3

\\

//i \ : \
:V: : : : : \L
i

2ji

::::::::::::::::::"

----+

61

/\\ '6

'

3
(e) Triangle formation shrinkage adjustment

Fig 3. Three formation adjust and transform strategy

p q

[0, I]

During the process of transformation, UA V#2 track LU

UA V# 1and U A V#I' at the mean of dashed line arrows which

13 I and 132 will respectively converge to expected distances.I ll

;to 1;12 in required limited time

Ii i'\''L2

(b) Slash formation transform to triangle formation

-I
' COSqi31 Sinqi3Il ( l VICOS(!1I-qi31) l ' I31 l
(10)
=
l cosqi32 sinqi32 J
V 2 cos(!1 2 -qi32)
32
1 J

So (10) can be written as

/':'LI'

is a reversible matrix Thus, it has

III hI- 1;1) I

I
a2 J I
d I
h2 32

4r///

26

To avoid UAV#3crash intoUAV#land UA V#2 also to

complete the formation adjustment or transformation, we set

"

(o)U(T; )
(O)lt/(T; )

send out from UA V#2 and direct to LU UA V# 1 and U A V#I'

as shown in Fig 3. The ultimate purpose is to make UA V# 1 at
point2'which is equidistant to UAV# 1 and UAV#I 'with the
length Il .

Fig3, the process is shown by curved arrows

which send out from UA V#2 and direct to point2' . U A V#I'

is virtual leader wh ich is establish for UA V#I the follower of

(12)

*2-'32

In

UA V#2,and now we can use I - I model to UA V#2. Suppose

the coordinate of UA V#l

is

, the coordinate

ofUAV#I'would be ( x1" y1, ) in Fig 3(a), (c).

(13)

xI'

xI

,gl

cos

IV. FORMATION ADJUST AND TRANSFORM STRATEGY

According to formation adjust or transform method
introduced above, we design three formation transform
strategies can be shown as Fig 3.

( Xl' Yl )

fj,

...........

(81 : J
+

(14)

And the coordinate ofUAV# l' in Fig 3 (b) is

(15)

:'fj, 3
We define the velocity ofuA V# I' as V

I'

IVI, l
V'I I , I
lVI y J
=

(a) Vertical formation transform to triangle formation

266

I dxl, l
I-I
I dt I
I dYI' I

l'dt"'J

(16)

SaB3.6

In the transformation process, UA V#I and UA V#2 are the

leaders of UAV#3. By using I - I model, we can make sure

UA V#2with a length equal to 1 1 . In Fig 3, the process is

represented by curved arrows which send out from UA V#3 and
direct to point 3' .
If we use I - I model formation transform method introduced
above to solve the situations shown in Fig 3(a), and (b), the
B

II

is singular. That is because

the initial condition is all of the three UA Vs in a line. In order

to avoid

Ell

UA V#3 at point 3' which is equidistant to UAV#I and

equation (8) has no solution for

completion time Tr
4.5s .The simulation total time is
2
1.\,
20s' when t lOs , the formation receive instructions

singular, at the same time, make it conform to

reality, we let UA V#3 begin to transform formation a little

later than UAV#2.
V. SIMULATTON EXPERIMENT

and begin to transform, for UA V#2 is leader of UA V#3, so

we let UAV#3 switching

Id

formation flight phase

triangle formation

Id

(0)

9m

Initial velocity:

V (0)
I

illitial velocity azimuth angle:

81(0)

Initial velocity:

V (0)
2

1 5m,y (0)
2

25m

28m Is;

Initial velocity azimuth angle:

8 (0)
2

15 .

FU UAV#3:
illitial position: x3(0)
Initial velocity:

V3 (0)

Om,y3(0)

.E
N:;-

26m Is;

Initial velocity azimuth angle:

83(0)

20

-x
::::J

Parameters ofPID controller:

K Px

K Py

20;

K Ix

K Iy

O. I;

K Dx

The limited maximum value of control :

lu 1
y

,0::;

10 9 ,

10m I

s2

K Dy

lux I

10 .

,0::; 109

time

Trl

2.5s

UA V#3

20

-I1.

\______________
________
_
10
...

;;,

15

20

50

-50
-1006
100

t(8)

(b)

'

-'--_________

_-------

4,

6,

8,

10

I(s)

12
,

14

16

18

20

{ tL-----I ---

Formation transformation settings: UAV#2 transformation

completion

15

1
::
ot\-------; ----,-O-----,5----;l

1OO

-30m

DO

J; 20

10
t(s)

;;,

::t

10 .

DO

_N 10

::t '-----------------------4]1.

FU UAV#2:
Initial position: x (0)

x(m)

(a)

8m

.. ..... ..... . .. ..... ..... . . .. ...

----4 O --5OO--600 '=------='

---c-!
, OO --2OO --
700
0
30!-cO

0.'

. Other Settings are as follows:

25m Is;

\, -" -

/""'''''''

/
/
-30 ----

1 0m , after convert to regular

25m, YI (0)

.....
............+
. ..........
......

-20f+-----+-----+-----+----+_----+_----r_--__+

. In the UA Vs vertical

LU UAV#l:
Initial position: xI (0)

-10H------t-----+-------t------+-----+_----r_--__+

30m/s

, -+--/_

10 --+-----+-----+----+_----+_----r_--__+

When UAVs transform vertical formation into triangle

formation, the initial position is Xc (0) 40 111, Y c (0) 0 m ,
vI

.......... Formation flight path

-- Leader tracng trajectory
UAV#2 trajectory
UAV#3 trajectory

\.
-+----+_ ----2of--'.---+-----+---- -_
- - ..
,,

flight path point speed is

I
O. s later than UAV#2.

30 ---------r--.---

The simulation results as shown in figure 4, the figure 4 (a)

is UA Vs formation flight switching path curve. We can see that
the three UAVs already from vertical formation switch to
regular triangle formation. Figure 4 (b) gives the distances
between any two UA Vs in the whole process, we can see that
the formation transformation of UA V# 2 accomplished in 2.5 s,
and UAV#3 accomplished in 4.5 s. The distance between
UA V# I and UA V# 2 reduced froml Om to 9m, the distance
between UAV# 3 and UA V# 1 reduced from 20m to 9 m, the
distance between UAV# 2 and UA V# 3 reduced fromlO m to 9
m. All the process is safety without crash. The control curves
of UAV#2 and UAV#3 are respectively given by Fig4(c) ,4(d).

ill order to verifY the effectiveness of our design, we take

simulation experiment to the transform strategies which
designed in Graph 2. ill the simulation, UA V# 1 is the leader,
UAV# 2, UAV# 3 are follower.

A. simulation

td

transformation

-,000UL2 4 6--8--,0- ,2- ,4---,6---,8--20

I(s)

(c)

267

SaB3.6

til

100

.E

:J

Ni
:::J

10

t(8)

50 -

----------'

-50-

2.

-100 .

:I\ I I I I I I I I II
:F I I I I lJ I I I I
:R I I I I "1' [ [ [ [ [

,
4

10

12

t(8)

(d)

,
16

14

,
18

20

The three UA Vs enter slash fonnation from initial position,

UA V#2 , UA V#3 have a initial velocity azimuth angle
0
_150

to UAV#l,then transform to triangle formation using

the stagey introduced in Fig 3(b). Before transformation, the
after that. UA V#3 initial position is x3 (0)
yaw angle

B, (0)
'"

10

Formation flight path

- Leader tracking trajectory
----- UAV#2 trajectory
----_ .. UAV#3 trajectory

\,
.--'

>

.----- -------------- --------------- -----

0-+--4---+----+---+--
100

',---

200

-----------

400

300

----------- --

500

600

16

18

20

10

12

14

16

18

20

10
t(s)

12

14

16

18

20

-10

10
t(s)

12

14

16

18

20

10
t(s)

12

14

16

18

20

10
t(s)

12

14

16

18

20

10
t(s)

12

14

16

18

20

(d)
Fig 5 . Simulation results of the transform from slash formation to triangle
formation

simulation 3

10-+--4---+----+---+--
------------ ---------- ---

14

The three UA Vs enter triangle formation from initial

position; they have to shrink the fonnation to cross narrow
channel. In order to keep the formation, we reduce distance
between any two UA Vs to shrink the formation by using the
stagey introduced in Fig3(c). Before transformation, the
distance iSl
20m , and 'd
10m after that. Other settings
d
are the same to simulation I. Figure 6(a) is flight and
formation transformation curve. From the simulation result,
we can see that the UA Vs formation has shrunk to a small
regular triangle formation. From figure 6 (b) ,we know that
the transformation ofUAV#2 complete in 2.5 s, and UA V#3
accomplished in 4.5 s. The distance between UA V# I and
UA V# 2 reduced from20m to 10 m, the distance between
UA V# 3 and UA V# I reduced from 20m to 10 m. All the

::rH\_+-___-+__ __+-_---1__
-+-

12

t21DII I I I I I II
llrl I I I t I I I II
C.

50r-----'--'------

10

(c)

.Other settings are the same to

"--+---+---+----1j
40 -1"--\'""""

40m ,

simulation I. The simulation result is shown in Fig 5, Figure

(a) is flight and formation transformation curve. We can get
the conclusion that the formation transfonnation accomp lished
successfully. Figure 5 (b) gives the distances between any two
UA Vs in the whole process, we can see that the formation
transfonnation of UA V# 2 accomplished in 2.5 s, and UA V#3
accomplished in 4.5 s. The distance between UA V# I and
UA V# 2 always maintain 10m , the distance between UA V# 3
and UAV# 1 reduced from 20m to 10m, the distance between
UA V# 2 and UA V# 3 always maintain 10m . AII the process is
safety without crash. The control curves of UA V#2 and
UAV#3 are respectively given by Fig5(c) and FigS (d).

-10

20 m , and 10m

Om, Y 3 (0)

IIII
rlrllllFlIIII
-10

I ':III I tI

simulation 2

distance between UAV#3 and UA V# I is '31

(b)

Fig 4_ Simulation results of the transfonn trom Vertical formation to triangle

formation
B.

700

x(m)

(a)

268

SaB3.6

process is safety without crash. The control curves of UA V#2

and UAV#3 are respectively given by Fig6(c) and Fig4 (d).

VI. CONCLUSION
ill this paper, aiming at the UAV formation flight
formation transformation, using PID control method to design
the UA V formation flight distributed formation control law,
and to design three kinds of conventional formation of
switching strategy, and design the formation switch control
law, make formation complete transformation in limited
time .Simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of the
design.

30
.......... Formation flight path
- Leader tracking trajectory
----- UAV#2 trajectory
.... UAV#3 trajectory

'.

o--"+
--_+-----'-"-----------------------+---------- --- --------'---i
,,-

-10

-20

I, ". . ....
__

'-'-'-'-'.'.'

..........._._._..
-.... ....... ./-"

+;----+---_+--------+_--_+------____+

----700
00------5
--. 00
------,.-!v
"'
,;
-----.
o!

00---2
0
00
30;,,
60"'0
4-!v

-30
0

x(m)

[1]

(a)

[2]

[3]

[4]

(b)

r1111111111
r1111 rill II
-50
0

-10
0

10
t(s)

10
t(s)

12

12

14

14

16

16

18

[5]

[6]

20

18

[7]

[8]

20

[9]

(c)

rg I I I I I I I I I
Ullo [ [ [ t [ [ [ [I
-10
0

-10
0

10
t(s)

10
t(s)

12

12

14

14

16

16

18

18

[10]

[11]

20

[12]

Q.J. Fan,

REFERENCES

Z.

Yang,

T.

Fang,

et aI., "Research Status of

Coordinated formation flight control for multi-UAVs" ACT A

AERONAUTICA ET ASTRONAUTIC SINCA, 2009, 30(4):
683-691.
L TV Cheng-gong , Yang Zhong , FAN Qiong-jian Research
on multi-UAVs close formation flight control based on
CMAC[J].Transducer and M icrosystem Technologies, 2009,
28(7): 37-43
Rui-yun Wang, Rui-xuan W ei, Yue Liu, UAV close
formation constitute control [J].Flight Dynamics,2008,26(6):
34-37.
LIU Xiao-xiong, ZHANG Wei-guo, WANG Zhen-hua, LI
Guang-wen Adaptive Formation Flight Control Design for
UAVs [J] Journal of System Simulation, 2009, 21(5):14201422.
Zong Ling bei, Xie Fan, Qin Shiyin . Intelligent Optimizing
Control of Formation Flight for UAVs Based on MAS[J].
ACTA AERONAUTICA ET ASTRONAUT ICA SINICA,
2008,29(5): 1326-1333.
T. Balch and R.C Arkin. Behavior-based formation control
for multi-robot teams[J]. IEEE Transactions on Robot
Automation[J],1998,14(6): 926-939.
M. 1. Tahk, C. S. Park, and
C. K. Ryoo. Line-of-Sight
guidance laws for formation fl ight[J]. Journal of Guidance,
Control and Dynamics,2005,28(4): 708-716.
H. Chung, and S. S. Sastry. Autonomous helicopter formation
using model predicative control[C]. AIAA-2006-6066.
Y. Li, B. Li, Z. Sun and Y. D. Song. Fuzzy technique based
close formation flight control[C], Proc. of the 31st
Conference on Industrial Electronics Society,2005,40-44.
Brian D. O. Anderson, Brais Fdan, Changbin Yu, et al.
UAV formation control : Theol)' and Application. Recent
Advances in Learn ing and Control Lecture Notes in Control
and Information Sciences. 2008. Volume 37112008. 15-33.
Jongho Shin , H. Jin Kim. N onlinear model predicative
formation flight[J], IEEE Transactions on systems, man,
and cybernetics-part A : systems and humans. Vo1.39, N o.
5,September 2009.
Jurachart Jongusuk and Tsutomu M ita. Tracking control of

multiple mobile robots: a case study of inter-robot collision free

problem. Asia Journal of Control, 2002,4(3):265-273.

20

(d)
Fig 6. Simulation results of triangle formation shrinkage adjustment

269