Abstract

The abundance of embedded computational resources in autonomous vehicles enables enhanced operational effectiveness through cooperative teamwork in civilian and military applications. Compared to autonomous vehicles that perform solo missions, greater efficiency and operational capability can be realized from teams of autonomous vehi-cles operating in a coordinated fashion. Potential applica-tions for multivehicle systems include space-based interferometers, combat, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, hazardous material handling, and distributed reconfigurable sensor networks. To enable these applications, various cooperative control capabilities need to be developed, including formation control, rendezvous, attitude alignment, flocking, foraging, task and role assign-