Purnima Sah
Novel scheme by IIT Bombay researchers to control drones can enable complex formation flying using only camera data, without GPS or inter-drone communication.
A new control scheme developed by Professor Dwaipayan Mukherjee and research scholar Chinmay Garanayak at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay enables unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to fly in coordinated swarms without relying on GPS, inter-drone communication, or centralised control systems. The method uses bearing-only measurements obtained through onboard cameras to determine relative positions and maintain formation.
The researchers applied the scheme to Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) UAVs, which can lift off without a runway and hover mid-air. These drones are suitable for operations in confined spaces such as surveillance and monitoring. “Autonomy in a swarm is a critical task,” Mr. Mukherjee said. “This means that vehicles in a swarm should be able to decide their ‘actions’ based on variables they can measure with their on-board sensors, instead of having to rely on some global information being fed to them or some human/centralised computer deciding what their action ought to be. This is where our paradigm differs from usual ones,” he added.
The proposed ‘bearing-only’ control scheme allows each drone to use its onboard camera to observe its immediate neighbours and calculate bearing information. “In bearing-only control, the goal is to achieve formation control using only interagent bearing measurements,” Mr. Garanayak said. The system does not require GPS or communication with other drones or a central computer.
Camera-based measurements are less prone to noise than conventional distance sensors, simplifying the drone’s sensor system and reducing battery requirements and overall weight. The scheme is designed to work in areas where GPS is unavailable, or communication could be jammed, making it suitable for stealth-mode operations such as covert military missions.
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