Consensus-based data sharing for large-scale aerial swarm coordination in lossy communications environments

Abstract

Increasing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capabilities and decreasing costs have facilitated growing interest in the development of large, multi-UAV systems, or swarms. The constrained communications environments in which these swarms operate, however, have limited the development of behaviors that require a high degree of deliberative coordination. This work presents two algorithms that use a consensus-algorithm approach to reliably exchange information throughout large swarms as a means of facilitating swarm behavior coordination. Results from experiments conducted in simulation and live-fly exercises are presented and discussed.