Acceleration Constraints for Maneuvering Formation Flight Trajectories

Maneuver acceleration constraints for formation flight path planning based on the leader-follower concept are proposed. First, a minimum maneuver radius is derived to restrict the excessive required velocity over the minimum or maximum value. Second, in order to prevent an abrupt velocity reduction, which may cause large formation errors, a velocity reduction slope is derived to avoid a reverse-thrust command. Finally, we propose a scheme to put these constraints on the leader's maneuver to obtain a feasible path plan for formation flight based on the leader-follower concept.