Multi-UAV Path Following using Vector-Field Guidance

Gautam Kumar; Amit Shivam; Ashwini Ratnoo

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arXiv · 2604.17995

Multi-UAV Path Following using Vector-Field Guidance

Gautam Kumar·Amit Shivam·Ashwini Ratnoo

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Abstract

This paper presents a decentralized, collision-free framework for path following guidance of multiple uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), while maintaining uniform spacing along a reference path. A vector field-based guidance law is employed to drive each UAV toward the reference path. A rotational repulsion mechanism, utilizing relative distance and bearing between UAVs, is proposed to avoid collisions during convergence to the path, and an inter-UAV spacing error-based velocity control law is presented to achieve uniform separation along the path. Analytical guarantees are established for collision avoidance and convergence of the inter-UAV spacing errors to zero, ensuring uniform separation along the path. Numerical simulations demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.

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Gautam Kumar, Amit Shivam, Ashwini Ratnoo. 2026-04-20. Multi-UAV Path Following using Vector-Field Guidance. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.17995

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