Hormone-Inspired Cooperative Control for Multiple UAVs Wide Area Search

Teams of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are well suited to perform a search mission where multiple unknown targets located over a wide area. It is an important research area in cooperative control. Hormones are the common biological mechanism that enables cells to communicate and coordinate without central units. In this paper, we combine digital hormone mechanisms with recent search map method to provide a more effective way for multiple UAVs cooperative search. By using this extended map, single UAV can make local path decisions and coordinate their search behavior with neighboring UAVs via digital hormones information. UAV teams can display a better area searching ability without central command and control. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach.