Formation Control of Multiple UAVs
This project deals with the formation control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs have become an active research interest in recent years and a lot have been contributed towards their right operation and control by researchers. UAVs are either controlled remotely by a human operator or
2025-06-28 16:32:39 - Adil Khan
Formation Control of Multiple UAVs
Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject SummaryThis project deals with the formation control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs have become an active research interest in recent years and a lot have been contributed towards their right operation and control by researchers. UAVs are either controlled remotely by a human operator or autonomously by an onboard computer. In contrast to manned aircraft, UAVs are not only used for military purposes but their use has rapidly expanded into commercial applications like surveillance, aerial photography, etc. Keeping in mind all these applications, a UAV must be able to perform a smooth flight. This project deals with the design and implementation of two fully stable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) which are able to yaw, pitch and roll with full stability. The two telemetries are used to assign frequencies to designate one as master and other as slave. The coordinates of the master drone via air module are sent to the ground module of the master drone. The two ground modules communicate and thus the coordinates from the ground module of slave UAV are sent to the air module of slave UAV. In this way, the two UAVs communicate with each other.
The objectives of this project are listed below:
1. To design and develop an unmanned aerial vehicle with balanced center of gravity.
2. To design and develop another unmanned aerial vehicle with similar specifications.
3. To interface FPV camera for live video broadcasting.
4. To designate one UAV as Master while the other as Slave.
5. To allow communication among both UAVs.
6. To implement formation control using swarming sequence.
7. To maintain fully stable formation control using swarming sequence through IDE Mission Planner.
Our project is formation control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles; which is a type of multirotor drone. This project deals with the design and development of formation control between two UAVs i.e. Master UAV and Slave UAV. The detailed description of this project is as follows:
1. A 450 mm nylon fiber X-frame is chosen for our UAV.
2. Four brushless carbon motors of 920 KVA are connected to Electronic speed controllers.
3. The battery used is Lipo battery of 5200 mAH, 3s, 35c. 3s denotes the battery voltage i.e. 11.1 V and 35c denotes the discharging time.
4. The capacity of Electronic speed controllers in 30A.
5. These Electronic speed controllers are connected to the distribution board and are calibrated manually.
6. The Electronic speed controllers work on the principle of pulse width modulation (PWM) which controls the speed of the motors by varying current.
7. ArduPilot Mega 2.8 controller is used that receives the signals and reshapes the flight.
8. The transmitter i.e. remote used is FS-i6 and the receiver used is FS-i6AB.
9. The receiver receives the signal and conveys it to the APM 2.8.
10. GPS (Global Positioning System) being a navigation tool provides the user with the exact location of the drone as it has a built-in compass.
11. The Power module powers the APM 2.8 and ensures that APM is being provided with the regulated voltage and isn’t receiving any fluctuated value of the voltage that may damage the controller.
12. FPV camera is then installed that is capable of live video streaming via transmitter which operates on 5.6 GHz.
13. All the components are mounted onto the drone in such a way so as to maintain a balanced center of gravity.
14. Another similar drone is developed with the same components of similar specifications.
15. 3DR telemetry of different frequencies is mounted onto the drone.
16. The telemetry has two modules i.e. Air module and Ground module.
17. The air module is mounted on the board whereas a ground station is a setup.
18. The formation is implemented using the swarming algorithm and this is implemented using IDE Mission Planner.
19. Through the mission planner, we designate one UAV as a master while the other as a slave by assigning different frequency.
20. The coordinates of the master drone via air module are sent to the ground module of the master drone.
21. The two ground modules communicate and thus the coordinates from the ground module of slave UAV are sent to the air module of slave UAV.
22. In this way, the two UAVs communicate with each other.
The benefits of this project can be observed by the vast range of its applications in different areas, some of which are listed below.
Disaster Relief:
UAVs can help in disaster relief by providing intelligence across an affected area. For example, two international students are aiming to design a device that uses soundwaves to extinguish the fire. Their idea specifies using the technology with UAVs: Equip unmanned aerial vehicles with an extinguisher that works through soundwaves and send them into fires that are too dangerous for people to enter. T-Hawk and Global Hawk. UAVs were used to gather information about the damaged Fukushima Number 1 nuclear plant and disaster-stricken areas of the Tohoku region after the March 2011 tsunami. This can be helpful in Pakistan keeping in mind the destruction caused by 2005 earthquake.
Surveillance:
Aerial surveillance of large areas is possible with low-cost UAS. Surveillance applications include livestock monitoring, wild?re mapping, pipeline security, home is expanding with the advent of automated object detection.
Civil:
Civilians have been seen using UAVs for multiple reasons throughout. This includes aerial crop surveys by farmers. Aerial photography and aerial video recording my professional vloggers. They may also be used for the inspection of power lines and pipelines. UAVs also find their best application in the delivery system. UAVs of high power can be used to deliver certain items. For example, certain medical supplies can be delivered using UAVs to the inaccessible regions. UAVs can also be used for spying again any illegal activities happening in a certain area. This may include detection of illegal wildlife hunting. Many regions are more prone to wildlife hunting because they are uninhabited by humans. UAVs can, therefore, be used to detect any such illegal activity.
Health Care:
In 2018 review identified three roles for UAVs in healthcare:
1. Prehospital emergency care;
2. Speeding up laboratory testing;
3. Surveillance.
While other uses are being researched, such as their use for larval source management (LSM) to control vectors of diseases like malaria.
Demining:
Some British scientists are developing modern UAVs with more advanced technology. Imaging technology is one such kind. This helps to more effectively and more cheaply map the clearing of minefields. The unmanned airborne de-mining system called Mine Kafon Drone uses a three-step process to autonomously map, detect and detonate land mines. This can be really helpful for implementation in Pakistan.
Formation control techniques are burgeoning vis-`a-vis other operations involving single UAV. This can be credited to the wide array of applications involved with the use of multiple UAVs for a task rather than a single.The hardware prototype involves two drones one of which is designated as a master while the other one is designated as the slave. The design and development of a single UAV are shown in the hardware section of our previous paper where we have analyzed the hardware dynamics in detail. As discussed, the UAV is programmed in python and the controller used in Ardu Pilot Mega 2.8. Four brushless carbon motors are used that are mounted on the end of the X-frame. The whole weight distribution must be given importance while mounting the components as we want our drone to be in the state of equilibrium. The estimated current and voltage ratings of our UAV are shown In the table below. Besides this, the table also gives the after-effect values of speed when it is varied. As per our simulation technique, formation in hardware is implemented using the swarming technique. For this, we made another almost identical drone. Two telemetries of different frequencies are used. The frequency of 415 MHz is assigned to the master drone whereas the frequency of 915 MHz is assigned to slave drone. The difference in values of frequency enables the drone to communicate without any interference.
The telemetry basically has two modules i.e. Air module and Ground Module. The air modules of both telemetries are mounted onto their respective UAVs. The master drone sends the command to the ground station setup that is linked to the IDE Mission Planner. The ground stations of both drones are synchronized and hence the command is sent to the air module of slave drone via ground station. As long as this process is being carried out smoothly and without any interruption, the swarm system remains in a smooth pattern. In this manner, our formation using swarming technique is implemented.
| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 65550 | |||
| Brushless Carbon Motors | Equipment | 8 | 625 | 5000 |
| Electronic speed controllers | Equipment | 8 | 575 | 4600 |
| Lipo battery | Equipment | 2 | 5000 | 10000 |
| APM 2.8 (GPS KIT) | Equipment | 2 | 5750 | 11500 |
| Fly sky (FSI6 Trans/receiver) | Equipment | 1 | 5650 | 5650 |
| XT-60 | Equipment | 1 | 100 | 100 |
| Battery Charger | Equipment | 1 | 2800 | 2800 |
| DC Wire | Equipment | 2 | 100 | 200 |
| 450 mm frame (Landing skids) | Equipment | 1 | 4700 | 4700 |
| FPV Camera | Equipment | 1 | 3000 | 3000 |
| Camera Trans-Receiver | Equipment | 1 | 4000 | 4000 |
| Shock Absorber | Equipment | 2 | 1000 | 2000 |
| FPV Telemtery | Equipment | 2 | 2500 | 5000 |
| Others | Miscellaneous | 7 | 1000 | 7000 |