Drone Swarm Movement without Collisions with Fixed Obstacles Using a Hybrid Algorithm Based on Potential Functions

Facilitating obstacle avoidance for autonomous drones (UAVs) is a key problem of their safe movement, including indoor applications. The complexity of this problem increases when a large group or a swarm of drones implementing coordinated movement is concerned. In this scenario, there can be problems with the standard methods, such as the potential field method. The jamming effect that occurs when a drone cannot efficiently bypass an obstacle on its way to the destination is the most widespread problem. This paper suggests an approach that uses a hybrid algorithm combining the standard potential field and the curl-free vector field. For the sake of brevity, the authors only review the fixed obstacle scenario. The usage of the curl-free vector field component can help remove the jamming effect during swarm movement. The theoretical analysis of stability is performed using Lyapunov's direct method. To test the effectiveness of the approach, the authors used modeling in MATLAB/Simulink.