*Proceeding Paper* **Particle Swarm Optimization for Target Encirclement by a UAV Formation †**

**Tagir Muslimov**

Ufa State Aviation Technical University, Ufa 450077, Russia; tagir.muslimov@gmail.com

† Presented at the 15th International Conference "Intelligent Systems" (INTELS'22), Moscow, Russia, 14–16 December 2022.

**Abstract:** This paper presents an idea of using particle swarm optimization (PSO) to tune the control system of a decentralized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation. Simulations were run on a consensus-based decentralized UAV formation. Vector field guidance was used to control the formation. A fitness function is proposed that is based not only on the error of distance to the circular path, but also on the relative inter-UAV distance error. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, the obtained results of such tuning are compared to those obtainable by the conventional trial and error method.

**Keywords:** UAV formation flight; collective circumnavigation; target tracking; vector field guidance; drone flocking
