Cooperative Control

The objective of this project is to develop coordination algorithms and architectures that facilitate coordinated timing issues for UAVs. In particular we are working the coordinated strike problem which is battlefield scenario where N UAVs are tasked to strike N targets simultaneously.

The problem is complicated by the fact that the battle field contains numerous known threats and unknown pop-up threats. Key innovative technologies developed by the project include (1) a unique coordination architecture that encapsulates the information required for successful coordination into "coordination variables" and "coordination architectures", (2) path planning and trajectory generation techniques that are geared specifically to timing critical missions.

We have conducted experiments using the coordination architecture with three UAVs very successfully. Current efforts focus on improving the trajectory tracking capabilities of the UAVs using a concept involving reachability regions, and improving the timing aspects of the experiments using consensus algorithms.