Creation of the Algorithm for Agricultural Drones Mutual Positioning in a Swarm

Abstract

Every year, the scope of unmanned aerial vehicles use is growing, and the amount of such applications is expanding. At the same time, the emphasis is gradually shifting from the use of individual unmanned aerial vehicles to the use of their swarms, since for many tasks (for example, the agricultural survey, irrigation, etc.). The purpose of this work is to develop an algorithm for building a mutual positioning for a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles to maintain a stable structure during the swarm movement while performing its tasks. At the same time, it should be assumed that the swarm is controlled by one operator, regardless of the swarm elements number. Considered simplified option – the simplified algorithm for the degenerate case of two drones. The developed practical implementation of the created algorithm showed its efficiency during practical experiments, allowing to determine the local positioning of elements of a swarm containing from three to twenty elements.