The paper presents a mathematical description of a group control method based on an analogy with the translational motion of atoms, referred to as the thermal motion equivalent method. The stability of this method is investigated using agent prototypes based on quadcopters. Both field and semi-field experiments conducted to verify the proposed methodology are outlined. The results of experiments involving the launch of two real agents confirmed the need to compensate for turbulent flows created by propulsion systems. The thermal motion equivalent method based on the principles of potential field was adapted to account for the perturbations by adding a force equivalent calculated from the current velocity of the agent. The experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of this compensation in laboratory conditions. In addition, it was established by semi-full-scale simulation involving two real and two virtual agents that the presence of virtual agents did not harm the stability of a swarm. The findings of this study open up new prospects for the application of group control methods in robotics and unmanned vehicle systems.
Heiss et al. (Mon,) studied this question.