A Review of Consensus-based Multi-agent UAV Applications

In this paper, a review of distributed control for multi-agent systems is proposed, focusing on consensus-based applications. Both rotary-wing and fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are considered. On one side, methodologies and implementations based on collision and obstacle avoidance through consensus are analyzed for multirotor UAVs. On the other hand, a target tracking through consensus is considered for fixed-wing UAVs. This novel approach to classify the literature could help researchers to assess the outcomes achieved in these two directions in view of potential practical implementations of consensus-based methodologies

Implementation and Performance Evaluation of a Consensus Protocol for Multi-UAV Formation with Communication Delay

Consensus theory represents a relevant strategy for the control of distributed multi-UAV missions, whose main feature is the local inter-agent communication. Besides the physical characteristics of the swarm, a proper simulation environment must take into account such communication properties. In this paper, a formation consensus algorithm is implemented in ROS/Gazebo through the use of docker containers, so that the features of a real network can be included in the simulation. Performance metrics are provided to help researchers to validate the impact of communication delays on the performance of the algorithm

A Review of Consensus-based Multi-agent UAV Implementations

In this paper, a survey on distributed control applications for multi Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) systems is proposed.The focus is on consensus-based control, and both rotary-wing and fixed-wing UAVs are considered. On one side, the latest experimental configurations for the implementation of formation flight are analysed and compared for multirotor UAVs. On the other hand, the control frameworks taking into account the mobility of the fixed-wing UAVs performing target tracking are considered. This approach can be helpful to assess and compare the solutions for practical applications of consensus in UAV swarms

Design and SITL Performance of an online Distributed Target Estimation for UAV Swarm

In this paper, an online distributed target estimation for a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in formation flight is considered. In particular, a flocking algorithm is employed to handle the formation task, while a Distributed Kalman Filter in the Information form is used to perform the estimate of a mobile target state. Software-In-The-Loop simulations are carried on in the ROS/Gazebo environment to illustrate the coupling between the formation and the estimation tasks. Moreover, the influence of swarm connectivity in the estimation process is analyzed, showing the benefits of information fusion