Approach to Conception and Modeling for Distributed Hierarchical Control for Autonomous Drone Swarm

Abstract

Control of a drone swarm as a unity requires decentralization and hierarchy. Decentralizing control of drone swarm is necessary to free the human-operator from having to constantly control the behavior of the drones within the swarm. Hierarchical control of a drone swarm is necessary so that human-operator can adjust the activity of the swarm as a unity. The following separate roles have been identified for the implementation of decentralized hierarchical control of swarm activity: the activity of a separate drone, the activity of a drone- coordinator, and the activity of human-operator. The control hierarchy consists of a human-operator who controls the change in the behavior of the drone-coordinator. The drone-coordinator controls the changes in the programmed behavior of individual drones. This approach is an analog of the management of human-workers who perform assigned work, that opens up several possibilities. First, it is possible to use formal models of performance people’s behavior in social teams. Second, formal models can be used for decision-making and optimization for controlling a drone-coordinator in a swarm. Thirdly, computer modeling can be applied to the behavior of a drone swarm, which will allow choosing the optimal behavior of the swarm for different conditions of its activity.

Keywords: drone swarm, activity control, decentralization, hierarchy, modeling