Distributed Cooperative Control of Swarm Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Multi-route Clustering

Authors

• Yuyang Xiong, College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
• Chuntao Li, College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
• Wenhao Qiu, College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China

Abstract

Abstract: To address the collaborative control and formation maintenance problems of large-scale swarm unmanned aerial vehicles, a distributed cooperative control method for unmanned aerial vehicles based on multi-route clustering was proposed. Leveraging the characteristics of multiple routes, the overall cooperative control problem of the swarm was decoupled into the cooperative control within the same route and the consensus control between multiple routes. Within the same route, a forward-neighbor information interaction mechanism was designed to determine the neighbor relationships, and a velocity-guided cooperative algorithm was utilized to achieve the desired velocity matching and spacing maintenance of unmanned aerial vehicles; between multiple routes, an adjacent-route leader unmanned aerial vehicle information interaction mechanism was designed; a distributed leader election strategy was established; formation consensus variables were designed by the leader according to the route type, and a consensus algorithm was utilized to maintain the desired formation of the swarm. To quantitatively evaluate the cooperative control effect of the swarm, the intra-route neighbor spacing, order parameter, route tracking error, and formation consensus error were introduced as evaluation indicators. Simulation results show that this method enables large-scale swarm unmanned aerial vehicles to quickly achieve an orderly state during the assembly phase and effectively maintains the desired formation during the mission flight phase, which significantly improves the cooperative efficiency and has excellent scalability.

Recommended Citation

Xiong, Yuyang; Li, Chuntao; and Qiu, Wenhao (2026) "Distributed Cooperative Control of Swarm Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Multi-route Clustering," Journal of System Simulation: Vol. 38: Iss. 7, Article 4.
DOI: 10.16182/j.issn1004731x.joss.25-0848
Available at: https://dc-china-simulation.researchcommons.org/journal/vol38/iss7/4

First Page

1832

Last Page

1848

CLC

V279; TP391.9

Recommended Citation

Xiong Yuyang, Li Chuntao, Qiu Wenhao. Distributed Cooperative Control of Swarm Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Multi-route Clustering[J]. Journal of System Simulation, 2026, 38(7): 1832-1848.

Corresponding Author

Li Chuntao

DOI

10.16182/j.issn1004731x.joss.25-0848