The maneuvering of a large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm, notable for flexible flight with collision-free, is still challenging due to the significant number of UAVs and the compact configuration of the swarm. In light of this problem, a novel parallel control method that utilizes space and time transformation is proposed. First, the swarm is decomposed based on a grouping-hierarchical strategy, while the distinct flight roles are assigned to each UAV. Then, to achieve the desired configuration (DCF) in the real world, a bijection transformation is conducted in the space domain, converting an arbitrarily general configuration (GCF) into a standard configuration (SCF) in the virtual space. Further, to improve the flexibility of the swarm, the time scaling transformation is adopted in the time domain, which ensures the desired prescribed-time convergence of the swarm independent of initial conditions. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that collision-free maneuvering, including formation changes and turning, can be effectively and rapidly achieved by the proposed parallel control method. Overall, this research contributes a viable solution for enhancing cooperation among large-scale UAV swarms.

Based on cloud-fog computing, a cooperative control method is proposed for an air-ground heterogeneous swarm and the event-triggered strategy is introduced to eliminate the adverse effects of cyber attack. First, an air-ground nonlinear swarm system with aggregation-dispersion properties is built. Simultaneously, for better coordination and scalability of the heterogeneous swarm, a could-fog computing architecture dividing the swarm into two control layers is presented. As the swarm scales up, its susceptibility to random cyber-attacks increases, particularly to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Thus, the fog-cloud cooperative control method is proposed to ensure the secure consistency of the swarm under DoS attacks. In this way, a distributed average consensus control law at the fog layer is designed, while a leader-following-based asymptotic consensus control algorithm at the cloud layer is presented. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method, which has the strong robustness and scalability of the large-scale swarm system.

In this paper, to address the cooperative localisation of a heterogeneous UAV swarm in the GNSS-denied environment, an adaptive simulated annealing-particle swarm optimisation (SA-PSO) cooperative localisation algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the forming principle of the communication and measurement framework is investigated in light of a heterogeneous UAV swarm composition. Secondly, a reasonably cooperative localisation function is established based on the proposed forming principle, which can minimise the relative localisation error with limited available information. Then, an adaptive weight principle is incorporated into the particle swarm optimisation (PSO) for better performance. Furthermore, in order to overcome the drawbacks of PSO algorithm easily falling into the local extreme point, an adaptive SA-PSO algorithm is improved to promote the convergence speed of cooperative localisation. Finally, comparative simulations are performed among the adaptive SA-PSO, adaptive PSO, and PSO algorithms to demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed adaptive SA-PSO algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better performance in convergence speed, and the cooperative localisation precision can be guaranteed.

In order to overcome the drawbacks of the convergence time boundary dependent on tuning parameters in existing finite/fixed-time cooperative guidance law, this paper presents a three-dimensional prescribed-time pinning group cooperative guidance scheme that ensures multiple unpowered missiles to intercept multiple stationary targets. Firstly, combining a prescribed-time scaling function with pinning group consensus theory, the prescribed-time consensus-based cooperative guidance law is proposed. Secondly, the prescribed-time convergence of the proposed pinning group consensus-based cooperative guidance law proves that the convergence can be achieved at a specified time, regardless of initial conditions and parameters. Furthermore, the design steps including two stages of the proposed guidance law are given for engineering application. Extensive simulations are carried out in three cases to verify the properties. Simulation results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed prescribed-time consensus-based cooperative guidance scheme.

In view of the cooperative guidance problem with time delay, this paper proposes a two-stage time-delay prescribed-time cooperative guidance law in the three-dimensional (3D) space. In the first stage, by introducing a time scaling function and time-delay consensus, the proposed cooperative guidance law can overcome the negative influence of time delay to guaranteed the desired convergence performance. Derived from the Lyapunov convergence analysis, the time-delay stability of the first stage can be ensured and the convergence time can be described as the relationship between delayed time and mission-assigned convergence time. Then, taking the prescribed-time-related convergence time as the switching point, the second stage begins with suitable initial conditions and all interceptors are governed by proportional navigation guidance. Finally, comparative simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed time-delay guidance law.

Because of the limitation of the long-range detection capability of airborne sensors, it is very difficult for a single interceptor to achieve accurate mid-course guidance, especially for the long and medium range interceptors, and the maneuvering or invisible targets. As one of the solutions, the strategy of multi-interceptor cooperative intercepting can overcome the shortages of single-interceptor. Unfortunately, the existing mid-course guidance laws can't meet the requirements of cooperative intercepting strategy. To solve the problem, a novel cooperative mid-course guidance law is proposed in this paper by combining the traditional trajectory shaping guidance law and the cooperative parameter. Firstly, the cooperative mid-course guidance law is designed, and consensus of cooperative parameter characteristics is proved then. Secondly, the general expression of cooperative parameter and its convergence speed is analyzed. Finally, numeral simulations demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed cooperative mid-course guidance law.