1

A Leader-Follower Control Strategy Built and Refined using Relational Maneuver Primitives for Approximating Optimal Trajectories in Real-Time

The work herein presents a new approach to aircraft control within a leader-follower formation, and the refinement process used in its development. During autonomous flight, a follower aircraft is tasked to rejoin and maintain a designated formation …

Modeling and Detection of Cyber-Attacks in UAV Swarms using a 2D-LWR Model and Gaussian Processes

This paper considers a class of cyber-attacks attacking a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Our focus is on scenarios wherein an attacker may hack into a subset of vehicles in the swarm and create subtle changes in their parameters. These …

Pure Pursuit of a Target on a Circular Trajectory

Optimal Generator Policy for Hybrid Fuel UAV under Airspace Noise Restrictions

Here we study an optimal control problem involving energy management of a hybrid-fuel Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The planning problem for a hybrid-fuel platform involves determining the path while managing the energy resources, which includes a …

Development of Linear Battery Model for Path Planning with Mixed Integer Linear Programming: Simulated and Experimental Validation

Mixed Integer Linear Programs (MILPs) are often used in the path planning of both ground and aerial vehicles. Such a formulation of the path planning problem requires a linear objective function and constraints, limiting the fidelity of the the …

Competitive Perimeter Defense of Conical Environments

We consider a perimeter defense problem in a planar conical environment in which a single vehicle, having a finite capture radius, aims to defend a concentric perimeter from mobile intruders. The intruders are arbitrarily released at the …

On Improving the Potential Field Method for Ring Formation

In the ring formation control problem, the follower is designated to approach a ring defined relative to the leader. This type of formation gives the follower more flexibility as it trails the leader. To achieve such formation, the follower’s …

Optimal Strategies for the Game of Protecting a Plane in 3-D

A conflict between rational and autonomous agents is considered. The paper addresses a differential game of protecting a target in the 3-D space. This problem highlights the strong correlation between the highly dynamic scenario, the uncertainty on …

Power Management for Noise Aware Path Planning of Hybrid UAVs

Here we consider the problem of path planning for a hybrid fuel Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), equipped with both a battery and gasoline generator as two sources of energy. Routing the vehicle while considering this setup adds fuel constraints in …

Energy-aware 3D Leader-Follower Flight Trajectory Optimization for Fixed-Wing Aircraft

This paper focuses on optimizing the 3D flight trajectory of a fixed-wing follower aircraft in a leader-follower formation scenario. Instead of a rigid formation, the desired formation is defined as set of points configured as a ring located behind …