UAV flocking with wind gusts: Adaptive topology and model reduction

In this paper, we examine the problem of UAV flocking in the presence of wind gusts. Firstly, we model a velocity consensus-based leader-follower system exposed to gust disturbances and design an optimal controller, in the linear quadratic sense, to improve velocity tracking. We then proceed to examine topological features that promote the performance of such optimal controllers to design a network rewiring protocol for improved system performance. Finally we present a novel partitioning schemed, dubbed leader partition, in order to fuse "similar" states in the network, forming a graph theoretic method for model reduction.