Fully-autonomous coordinated flight of multiple UAVs using decentralized virtual leader approach

This paper presents experimental results of fully-autonomous coordinated flight of multiple UAVs. The coordination control law is designed based on the decentralized virtual leader approach, and its stability is theoretically proven. A mission scenario is defined by a sequence of four different coordination phases, to every of which the same controller is applied with different configuration settings. The proposed law has been implemented and demonstrated onboard the ONERA fixed-wing UAV platforms.