Cooperative Control for Multiple Air Vehicles

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of topics, technical challenges, and methods involved in cooperative control for multiple air vehicles. This is a broad area, with many subtopics and technical disciplines potentially involved. Subtopics of cooperative control include: cooperative motion and formation control, cooperative search and area coverage, task assignment and scheduling, and cooperative task execution. The particular technical challenges involved can vary depending on the exact type of cooperative control problem discussed, but certain difficulties are ubiquitous, particularly uncertainty, limited communication, and task coupling. This discussion focuses on technical challenges and solution methods related to assignment and scheduling problems for cooperative teams.