Collective Motion of a Swarm of Simulated Quadrotors Using Repulsion, Attraction and Orientation Rules

Coordination of large groups of robots can be a difficult task, but recent approaches, like swarm robotics, offer an alternative based on the behaviors observed in social animals. In this paper, the collective behaviors of the model proposed by Iain Couzin et al. are implemented in a swarm of 10 simulated quadcopters. The simulations are carried with a dynamic model of the quadcopter and a PID controller for stable flight. Collective behaviors are obtained with local rules of repulsion, orientation and attraction, based on the relative position of neighbors.