Design of a Formation Control System to Assist Human Operators in Flying a Swarm of Robotic Blimps

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel formation control system for indoor robotic blimps that uses a leader-follower approach with dynamic leader switching, enabling stable swarm behavior and human operator assistance.

Contribution

Introduces a leader-switching formation control system for robotic blimps that enhances stability and operator support in indoor environments.

Findings

Leader-switching effectively maintains formation stability.

System adapts to dynamic indoor environments.

Assists human operators during complex maneuvers.

Abstract

Formation control is essential for swarm robotics, enabling coordinated behavior in complex environments. In this paper, we introduce a novel formation control system for an indoor blimp swarm using a specialized leader-follower approach enhanced with a dynamic leader-switching mechanism. This strategy allows any blimp to take on the leader role, distributing maneuvering demands across the swarm and enhancing overall formation stability. Only the leader blimp is manually controlled by a human operator, while follower blimps use onboard monocular cameras and a laser altimeter for relative position and altitude estimation. A leader-switching scheme is proposed to assist the human operator to maintain stability of the swarm, especially when a sharp turn is performed. Experimental results confirm that the leader-switching mechanism effectively maintains stable formations and adapts to dynamic indoor environments while assisting human operator.