Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has been widely used in a variety of application, and the target search is one of the hot issues in the UAV research fields. Compared with the single UAV, the multi-UAV system can be competent for more complex tasks, with higher execution efficiency and stronger robustness. However, there exist some new challenges in the multi-UAV cooperative search, such as collaborative control and search area covering problems. To complete these tasks efficiently, the cooperative search problem is modeled as a potential game, and a modified binary log linear learning (BLLL) algorithm is proposed in this paper, to solve the covering problem using multiple UAVs. Furthermore, to improve the cooperative control performance based on potential game theory, a novel action selection strategy for UAVs is proposed. This strategy can avoid a UAV wandering around at the zero utility area by exchanging the information with neighbors. Finally, various simulations are carried out. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively complete cooperative search tasks and has better performance than the original BLLL algorithm.INDEX TERMS Multiple UAVs, cooperative search, potential game, binary log linear learning algorithm.

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