A Formation Reconfiguration Algorithm for Multi-UAVs Based on Distributed Cooperative Coevolutionary with an Adaptive Grouping Strategy

The Formation reconfiguration problem plays a crucial role in the implementation of complex tasks for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, which attracted increasing attention in the past decade. Taking into consideration the control parameters and time discretization of the multi-UAVs in the 3 Dimensional (3-D) space, the formation reconfiguration problem can be formulated as a large-scale combinatorial optimization problem with complex constraints and tight couplings between variables. The problem results in the reduction in efficiency and effectiveness using classic bio-inspired algorithms. In this paper, a formation reconfiguration method based on cooperative coevolutionary algorithm is proposed along with a new decomposition strategy to improve the optimization capability and prevent premature convergence. In the proposed approach, variables of multi-UAV are divided into several sub-groups based on an adaptive grouping strategy. The proposed strategy groups the variables in order to better deal with the tight coupling among them, taking into account the variables' variance and multi-UAVs characteristics of the formation reconfiguration problem. Therefore, each subgroup can adopt the Self-adaptive differential evolution strategy with neighborhood search (SaNSDE) with the aim to optimize the UAV's control inputs using multithreaded programming. SaNSDE contributes to calculating the results in a fully distributed and paralleled manner. Optimal solution is then obtained through cooperation and coordination with all subcomponents. Simulation results based on extreme scenarios adopted by previous researches demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperformed the existing approaches including Particle swarm optimization (PSO), Differential evolution (DE), and the cooperative coevolution algorithms with different well-known grouping strategies.