Cooperative control of multiple UAVs for moving source seeking

The problem of moving source seeking using multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is studied in this paper, where unknown scalar field source is considered. Leader-follower structure is utilized for multi-UAV cooperation and the gradient of the unknown scalar field at the leader location is estimated based on the field value measurement by all UAVs. By using the estimated gradient, the velocity of the moving source is adaptively estimated as well. Then, both the estimated gradient and moving source velocity are used to generate a guidance law for leader UAV to achieve level tracking around the source. Heading rate controllers for leader and follower UAVs are proposed to achieve circular formation. In this paper, the gradient estimation error is analyzed in light of the circular formation, and furthermore, the influence of this error on moving source velocity estimation and level tracking accuracy is also explored. Finally, simulation results are provided to verify the proposed approach.