Flight Test Results of a Distributed Merging Algorithm for Autonomous UAS Operations

This paper reports the flight test results of an on-demand, distributed, consensus based merging algorithm for autonomous multi-agent coordination used to regulate flow of air traffic through a common intersection or merge fix in a given airspace. Distributed merging is enabled by vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology, a distributed consensus algorithm and a scheduling algorithm to coordinate the arrival times of the vehicles approaching a merge fix. The proposed algorithm is integrated into the ICAROUS (Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operations of Unmanned Systems) software suite and was used to demonstrate the merging capability in a flight test campaign. The objectives of these flight tests were to validate the distributed consensus-based merging algorithm and to evaluate the requirements and associated challenges in ensuring the successful application of the algorithm in a real-world setting. Details of the flight test setup, hardware used, impediments to the achievement of the outlined objectives, flight test results and lessons learned are documented in this paper.