Intelligent-Geometric Control Architecture for Extinguishing Fires by a Group of UAVs

The article is devoted to solving cutting-edge scientific problem of creating models and methods for increasing the autonomy of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during fire-fighting operations in an uncertain environment. We show the necessity of using vehicles, both capable to monitor the fire hazard situation and to participate directly in fire extinguishing. A novel three-level hierarchical control architecture for UAVs is proposed, aimed at joint application of precise geometric and adaptive intelligent control methods providing operational reliability and ability to effectively plan motion and behavior in complex external conditions. A model problem of extinguishing a fire by a group of intelligent UAVs capable of exchanging information, choosing leaders, and autonomous planning of actions under wind disturbances in the presence of no-fly zones is considered and solved. To conduct experiments and test an intelligent-geometric approach, we use mathematical models of vehicle’s dynamics and onboard rotary camera stabilization in the form of transfer functions integrated into a single control system. In accordance with the proposed architecture, the solution to the problem of controlling a UAV group involved in putting out a large-scale fire under uncertainty was simulated in the MATLAB Simulink system. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.