Application of the Fault Injection Method for the Verification of Behavior of Multiple Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flying in Formation

This research aims to present an analysis of the behavior of multiple Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (multi-RPAS) flying in formation, which is considered advanced aerial mobility within the aerospace industry. This involves the positioning and relative distance in three dimensions (3D) of two or more RPAS, taking into account their operational requirements and limitations, recognizing the operating states, and addressing potential situations encountered during formation flight. For this study, the “Conformance and Fault Injection – CoFI” methodology is employed. This methodology guides the user towards a comprehensive understanding of the system and enables the creation of a set of finite state machines representing the system’s behavior under study. Consequently, models and requirements for the behavior of multi-RPAS flying in formation are presented. By applying the CoFI methodology to inject faults into the operation and predict behavior in anomalous situations, both normal and abnormal behavior models, as well as the flight behavior requirements of multi-RPAS formation, are outlined. This analysis is expected to facilitate the identification of formation flight behavior in multi-RPAS, thereby reducing associated operational risks.