Cooperative Trajectory Planning for Multi-UCAV Performing Air-to-Ground Target Attack Missions

Abstract:

The problem of planning flight trajectories is studied for multiple unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) performing a cooperated air-to-ground target attack (CA/GTA) mission. Several constraints including individual and cooperative constraints are modeled, and an objective function is constructed. Then, the cooperative trajectory planning problem is formulated as a cooperative trajectory optimal control problem (CTP-OCP). Moreover, in order to handle the temporal constraints, a notion of the virtual time based strategy is introduced. Afterwards, a planning algorithm based on the differential flatness theory and B-spline curves is developed to solve the CTP-OCP. Finally, the proposed approach is demonstrated using a typical CA/GTA mission scenario, and the simulation results show that the proposed approach is feasible and effective.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 718-720)
• Pages: 1329-1334
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.718-720.1329
• Online since: July 2013
• Authors: Xue Qiang Gu, Yu Zhang, Shao Fei Chen, Jing Chen
• Keywords: B-Spline Curve, Cooperative Trajectory Planning, Differential Flatness, Multi-UCAV Air-To-Ground Attack, Nonlinear Programming Problem

References

[1] A. Tsourdos, B. A.White, and M. Shanmugavel, Cooperative path planning of unmanned aerial vehicles, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. England, 2011.

DOI: 10.2514/4.867798

[2] I. Kaminer, O. Yakimenko, V. Dobrokhodov, A. Pascoal, N. Hovakimyan, C. Cao, A. Young, and V. Patel, Coordinated path pollowing for time-critical missions of multiple UAVs via L1 adaptive output feedback controllers, presented at the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference and Exhibit, Hilton Head, South Carolina, 2007, 1-23.

DOI: 10.2514/6.2007-6409

[3] K. P. Bollino and L. R. Lewis, Collision-free multi-UAV optimal path planning and cooperative control for tactical applications, presented at the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference and Exhibit, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2008, 1-18.

DOI: 10.2514/6.2008-7134

[4] F. L. Lian, Cooperative path planning of dynamical multi-agent systems using differential flatness approach, Int. J. Control Autom. Syst.6 (2008) 401-412.

[5] B. L.Stevens and F. L.Lewis, Aircraft control and simulation, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. England, 2003.

[6] L.-P. R. Lewis, "Rapid motion planning and autonomous obstacle avoidance for unmanned vehicles," MB, 2006.

[7] Y. Zhang, J. Chen, and L. Shen, Hybrid hierarchical trajectory planning for a fixed-wing UCAV performing air-to-surface multi-target attack, J. Syst. Eng. Electron.23 (2012) 256-264.

DOI: 10.1109/jsee.2012.00068

[8] E. Besada-Portas, L. d. l. Torre, J. M. d. l. Cruz, and B. d. Andres-Toro, Evolutionary trajectory planner for multiple UAVs in realistic scenarios, IEEE Trans. Rob.26 (2010) 619-634.

DOI: 10.1109/tro.2010.2048610

[9] H. Liu, S. Chen, L. Shen, and J. Chen, Tactical Trajectory Planning for Stealth UAV to Win the Radar Game, Defence Science Journal.62 (2012)

DOI: 10.14429/dsj.62.2686

[10] F. M, Flatness and defect of nonlinear systems: Introductory theory and examples, Int. J. Control.61 (1995) 1327-1361.

[11] J. L. Foo, J. Knutzon, V. Kalivarapu, J. Oliver, and E. Winer, Path planning of unmanned aerial vehicles using B-splines and particle swarm optimization, J Aeros Comp Inf Com.6 (2009) 271-290.

DOI: 10.2514/1.36917

[12] Storm shadow UCAV performance. Information on: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/design/ucav/main.shtml