2019 4th Conference on Control and Fault Tolerant Systems (SysTol)
Casablanca, Morocco, September 18-20, 2019
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Fleet Control via Artificial Bee Colony
Algorithm
Majd Saied, Malak Slim, Hussein Mazeh, Clovis Francis and Hassan Shraim
Abstract— This paper considers a distributed planner method
for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), based on a
leaderless approach, using an Artificial Bee Colony (ABC)
optimization algorithm. The ABC algorithm is a metaheuristic
optimization method inspired by the intelligent behavior of
the honeybee swarm. The proposed ABC, implemented on
each UAV independently, is used to compute velocity profiles
that avoid obstacles and collisions between the UAVs while
ensuring the fleet formation control and the target tracking.
The proposed algorithm is demonstrated by simulations on
Matlab/Simulink in different scenarios.
I. INTRODUCTION
The recent years have witnessed many developments in
the area of unmanned aerial vehicles fleet and formation
control. This is due to the benefits of operating multiple
UAVs to achieve tasks more efficiently compared to a single
UAV in a wide range of applications such as investigating
large regions for surveillance and rescue or large payloads
transportation [1]. The main challenge in this field is to find
the local interaction rules between these vehicles to achieve
a global desired comportment. To deal with this issue,
different formation strategies are proposed in the literature
and summarized below.
In the leader-follower configuration, the desired trajectory
is loaded in the leader followed by the other agents of the
flight [2]. The main drawback of this configuration is that
the entire formation depends on the leader, in addition to the
non self-organization formation. Solutions to some of these
drawbacks were proposed in [3] where an interactive leader-
follower configuration of multiple quadrotors is considered
to solve the problem of one leader dependency.
In the virtual configuration, each UAV in the formation
follows its own trajectory, where trajectories are computed
in a central controller and shared with the agents without
interactions between them [4]. The main drawbacks of this
approach reside in the computational and communication
cost and the possibility of collision occurrence in the pres-
ence of perturbations.
The behavior-based structure is based on the collective
behavior of animals where each agent must follow some
guidelines to accomplish the formation, including the col-
lision avoidance, the velocity matching and the formation
centering. Different works considered this structure in the
The authors are with the Lebanese University, Faculty of En-
gineering, Research Scientific Center in Engineering, Hadath,
Lebanon. {cfrancis, hassan.shraim}ul.edu.lb
978-1-7281-0380-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
litterature [5], [6] and demonstrate its advantages in terms of
self organization, scalability and distributed control of agents.
On the other hand, centralized, decentralized and distributed
control architectures can be distinguished, where the last
one was proven to be the most successful architecture for
autonomous flight formation control [7]. Each agent in this
architecture has its onboard controller that uses its own
information and that of its neighbors obtained from sensing
devices on each agent or through communication.
Different control architectures used for autonomous ve-
hicle fleet control exist in the literature in addition to the
theoretical tools used to synthesize the control laws. Some
methods proposed the use of consensus protocol to achieve
a defined fleet goal [8], where the theory of algebraic graphs
is the main theoretical tool used to solve control problems.
Other methods are based on optimization approaches where
the controllers are designed by minimizing or maximizing an
optimization criterion. The advantage with these approaches
in the control of multi-agent systems is that the objective
is formulated as an optimization problem, providing effec-
tive tools to find the optimal solution with respect to the
considered criteria. A distributed control strategy of a fleet
of quadrotors based on a leaderless strategy is proposed in
[9]-[11] where the formation problematic is stated as an
optimization problem solved by the particle swarm optimiza-
tion (PSO) algorithm. The objective is to minimize a cost
function for each vehicle that enables the whole system to
converge to a target point in a predefined configuration while
avoiding obstacle and collision between agents. According
to the authors, the PSO has shown optimal performance
with a minimum calculation time. However, as stated in
[12], the PSO can converge untimely and be snared into
a local minimum, which could be risky when dealing with
systems such as UAVs. To overcome this drawback, other
optimization algorithms could be used to minimize the cost
functions.
The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) is a population-based
optimization technique capable of handling constrained op-
timization problems [13]. Its was compared to other known
optimization methods and the results outmatched or matched
those achieved using other techniques [14], [15]. Different
works in the literature proposed the use of ABC approach
to solve mobile path planning [16] and satellite formation
keeping problems [17], and show the feasibility of applying
this technique for path planning and optimization of feed-
back gain controller parameters with a good quality of the
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solutions and fast convergence.
In this paper, we propose the use of the Artificial Bee
Colony algorithm for the leaderless distributed control of a
fleet of quadrotor UAVs. The optimization problem is formu-
lated as in the work proposed previously in [9]. The results
show that the ABC approach is efficient, fast converging and
suitable for such applications.
The paper is organized as follows. Section II is dedicated
for the problem formulation. The Artificial Bee Colony
algorithm is presented in Section III with its application
to the quadrotor UAVs formation control. The results are
presented in Section IV. The paper ends with conclusions
and perspectives in Section V.
II. P ROBLEM F ORMULATION
A. Quadrotor Formation Topology
The interaction topologies of m agents in a multi-agents
systems can be described using the graph theory [18], where
the system is represented by an undirected graph G = (V, E),
V = {1, 2, ..., m} and E ⊆ {(i, j) : i, j ∈ V, i 6= j} being
the sets of nodes and edges respectively. In a quadrotor fleet,
each node is equivalent to a quadrotor UAV and the edges
represent the communication between each two quadrotors.
Let A ∈ Rmxm be the adjacency matrix with elements aij >
0 if (i, j) ∈ E and aij = 0 otherwise.
To represent the quadrotors fleet in the Euclidean space, a
position vector qi = [xi yi ]T ∈ R2 is associated to each node
i in the graph. A set of neighbors of a vehicle i is defined
by:
Ξi = {j ∈ m : ||qi − qj || ≤ l} (1)
where l is the neighborhood scope.
The required configuration of multiple UAVs in the fleet
could be formulated as follows:
||qi − qj || = ddij ∀j ∈ Ξi (2)
where ddij
is the desired inter-distance between two UAVs
i and j. In addition, collision between agents should be
avoided. This constraint can be written as follows:
||qi − qj || > c (3)
with c ∈ R being the smallest acceptable distance between
any two neighbors. In the matrix A(t), this constraint is
formulated as:
∀aij (t) ∈ A(t) : aij (t) > c, with i 6= j (4)
To introduce this constraint in the cost function, a new
function αij (t) is defined between each quadrotor i and its
neighbor j [9]:
c−aij (t)
αij (t) = 1 + e σ (5)
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Fig. 1: Quadrotor Configuration
B. Quadrotor UAV Modeling
The quadrotor UAV is modeled as a rigid body, and its
nonlinear model is given as follows:
ζ̇ = v
mζ̈ = g + RU
(6)
η̇ = W Ω
J Ω̇ = ΩxJΩ + τ
where ζ = [x y z]T and v are the center of mass position and
velocity vectors in the inertial frame, η = [φ θ ψ]T and Ω
are the angles and angular velocities in the body-fixed frame.
The quadrotor’s mass is m and g = [0 0 − 9.81]T . J is the
moment of inertia matrix. W is the transformation velocity
matrix and R is the rotation matrix from the body frame to
the inertial frame. U is the thrust vector and τ is the torque
vector given as:

(f2 − f4 ).l

τ = (f3 − f1 ).l  (7)
τ1 + τ2 + τ3 + τ4
with fi and τi being the propeller’s thrust force and reaction
torque respectively:
fi = Kf ωi2
(8)
τi = (−1)i+1 Kτ ωi2
Kf and Kτ are the thrust and torque coefficients.
III. A RTIFICIAL B EE C OLONY
A. Principle of ABC Algorithm
The Artificial Bee Colony optimization method was in-
troduced in 2005 by Karaboga [19]. It is inspired by the
searching behavior of honey bee swarm.
The colony of artificial bees includes three types of bees:
employed, onlookers, and scout. Employed agents arbitrarily
look for food-source locations referred to us as solutions.
Then, by dancing, they send the nectar amounts of this
food-source, referred to us as the solutions qualities, to
the onlookers staying in the dance area of the hive. The
period of a dance is equivalent to the nectar content, fitness
value, of the food-source currently being exploited by the
employed bee. Hence, by watching various dances, onlooker
bees choose the appropriate food source position according
to the probability proportional to its quality. A good food-
source position catches most of the bees. If onlookers and
scout bees find a new food-source position, they may become
employed bees. Moreover, when the food-source position has
been tested fully, the employed bee associated with it leaves
it, and may change it status to an onlooker or a scout bee.
In the ABC algorithm, each search cycle includes three
steps:
• In the initialization step, the food is produced, the
employed agent is sent to it to measure the nectar
amounts and calculate the fitness. It is modeled as:

xij = xmin
j + rand(0, 1)(xmax
j − xmin
j ) (9)

i = 1, ... , n with n being the number of food sources

and j varies from 1 to the dimension of x vector.
After updating the position of the food source as in (9),
the fitness response is calculated as follows:
1
Fitnessi = (10) Fig. 2: Solution update in the ABC algorithm
1 + Λi
where Λi represents the value of the cost function at Population size 100
the solution i. Limit 100 s
• When the search step is done, food sources description Max Iterations 1000
c 1m
is sent to the onlooker bees: nectar amounts (fitness) and hmax 0.25
position. An onlooker bee analyzes all the information hmin −0.25
collected and selects the best food location according Tolerance 0.1
to its nectar quantity probability calculated as: TABLE I: Parameters of the ABC algorithm
Fitnessi
pi = Pn (11)
i=1 Fitnessi

• If the food site is consumed, it will be forsaken and a
new exploration is launched for a new food location.
This is done using a set counter (limit).
The solutions generation and update process in ABC
algorithm is shown in Fig. 2.
B. ABC Algorithm for UAVs Fleet Application Problem
The mathematical formulation of the optimization problem
for the UAVs formation application is presented below where
the cost function for each UAVi is defined as in [9]:
Λi (t) =Pρ(||Pd − [qi (t) + h]|| − ddip )
q IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS
+ Pi=1 αij (t)(||qj (t) − [qi (t) + h]|| − ddij )
m The proposed UAVs fleet control method has been val-
+ k=1 Obski (t)
(12)
with: i 6= j, q = card(Ξ(t)), ρ >> 1, ddip is the desired
distance between UAVi and rendezvous point. h ∈ R2 is the
desired reference point to be found at each step time for each
UAV according to the rendezvous point Pd and the neighbors
xj (t), with j ∈ Ξ(t).
The obstacle avoidance constraint is formulated by the term
below introduced into the cost function:
c−||qkobs(t)−[q (t)+h]||
i
Obski (t) = e σ (13)
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The objective of the ABC algorithm in this problem is to
compute the optimal vector h for each quadrotor i that
minimizes Λi (t) such that:
lim Λi (t) = 0 → lim L(t) = Ld (t) (14)
t→∞ t→∞
Ld is the desired geometrical configuration around a ren-
dezvous point.
Finally, the next position at time t + t0 for the agent i will
then be:
Yi (t + t0 ) = Y (t) + h (15)
idated by simulations on Matlab under different scenarios,
then the trajectory following is shown when the algorithm
is tested on a quadrotor fleet simulator on Matlab. The
parameters of the ABC used for simulations are presented
in table I.
Firstly, the ABC technique is applied on a single agent to
generate its path from an initial to a desired position without
and with an obstacle, where the location of the obstacle
is considered to be known. The results of this scenario
are shown in Fig. 3 and 4. Fig. 4 shows how the ABC
Fig. 3: 2D targets and trajectory generated by ABC algo-
rithm of one quadrotor without obstacle
Fig. 5: 2D targets and trajectory generated by ABC algo-
rithm of two quadrotor with collision avoidance

Fig. 4: 2D targets and trajectory generated by ABC algo-

rithm of one quadrotor with obstacle avoidance

algorithm adjusts the trajectory to avoid a collision if the

Fig. 6: 2D targets and trajectory generated by ABC algo-
vehicle approaches near the obstacle.
rithm of six quadrotor with collision avoidance
In a second scenario, two agents should converge to a
rendezvous point (0, 0) while keeping a circle configuration
of radius 2. The generated trajectories are shown in Fig. 5.
The second scenario is repeated with six agents where
the rendezvous point is (15, 10) and the radius is 6. Fig. 6
shows the generated trajectories while Fig. 7 and 8 show
respectively the cost functions for the six agents and their
corresponding radius while converging to the desired config-
uration.
Multiple simulations were performed at the same initial
conditions shown in the figures 3 to 6, and the table II
below summarizes the average convergence time for each
scenario, with an error tolerance of 0.1.

The scenarios above were tested on a quadrotor simulator

on Matlab taking into account all the nonlinear dynamics of
the model, disturbances and errors and biases on the sensors Fig. 7: Cost functions for six quadrotors using ABC
measurements. The implemented control law is a simple PID
83
Fig. 8: Raduis for the six quadrotors using ABC

Scenario Convergence Time

One agent without obstacle 3.724 s
One agent with obstacle 3.52 s Fig. 10: Trajectories of six quadrotors in a circle configura-
Two agents 10.477 s
Six agents 80.22 s
tions

TABLE II: Convergence time for different scenarios using Population size 100
ABC algorithm inertia weight wmax = 0.9, wmin = 0.4
cognitive weight b1initial = 2.6, b1f inal = 0.4
social weight b2initial = 0.4, b2f inal = 2.6
Max Iterations 1000
c 1m
controller applied on the positions and the attitude. hmax 0.25
Fig. 9 shows the trajectory for a single quadrotor moving hmin −0.25
Tolerance 0.1
between the two points (−8, −2) and (10, 6) for a time
constant of 0.2 s with its reference trajectory computed from TABLE III: Parameters of the adaptive PSO algorithm
the ABC algorithm. The trajectories of the 6 quadrotors
flying in a circle configuration to the point (15, 10) are shown
in Fig. 10.
error tolerance as above and Fig. 12 shows the cost functions
For comparison purpose, the same scenarios above were
for each quadrotor in terms of the number of iterations.
performed using the Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization
(PSO) used in [9] with the parameters shown in Table III. Multiple simulations were performed at the same initial
Fig. 11 shows the trajectory generated by this method for the conditions and error tolerance for the ABC algorithm and
six quadrotors with the same initial positions and the same the table IV below summarizes the average convergence
time for each scenario. According to the obtained results, it
is clear that, with same conditions and solutions quality, the
ABC converges faster than the PSO.

V. C ONCLUSION
This paper presents a distributed optimization-based con-
trol method for a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles. The
Artificial Bee Colony algorithm is used to minimize a cost

Scenario Convergence Time

One agent without obstacle 4.962 s
One agent with obstacle 4.97 s
Two agents 11.66 s
Six agents 112.66 s

TABLE IV: Convergence time for different scenarios using

adaptive PSO algorithm
Fig. 9: Trajectory following for a single quadrotor

84

Fig. 11: 2D targets and trajectory generated by adaptive PSO
algorithm of six quadrotor with collision avoidance
Fig. 12: Cost functions for six quadrotors using adaptive
PSO
function for each UAV guaranteeing convergence to the
desired position while avoiding obstacles and collisions with
other agents. The results show that the ABC algorithm is
efficient, fast converging and suitable for such applications.
The whole approach inspired from previous similar works
using PSO optimization offers many advantages in particular
in terms of its generic aspect since it can be applied to
various types of vehicles, its simplicity of implementation
and adjustment, and also its distributed architecture and real-
time aspect.
In future works, we intend to consider the energy min-
imization criterion in the cost function, and improve the
performance of the bee algorithm by setting a better bal-
ance between exploitation and exploration. The proposed
architecture will be tested experimentally on a fleet of real
quadrotors.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work has been funded with support from the research
support program of the Lebanese University.
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