Hybrid formation control framework for solar-powered quadrotors via adaptive fission pigeon-inspired optimization

A formation control protocol of solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) has been studied in this paper. To improve the formation quality of the SUAVs swarm, a formation control protocol of behavior-based structure in the horizontal plane is designed, and a new obstacle avoidance strategy is proposed for safe and high-quality formation when crossing obstacles. The difference of charge and discharge power of the SUAV is considered in the design of the consensus protocol for energy management in the vertical direction, which can be considered as bounded random disturbances added to the controller. By means of potential function and Lyapunov function, the stability of the closed-loop system in the horizontal plane and vertical direction is analyzed respectively. In addition, adaptive fission pigeon-inspired optimization (AFPIO) is developed to select the element values of the adjacency matrix for the SUAVs swarm. Finally, numerical simulations under different conditions are carried out to verify the excellent formation quality and energy management effect of the proposed method.