Based on the wild geese queue effect, this paper studies the efficient formation issue of flapping-wing aerial vehicles. By analyzing the formation manner with configuration “V”, it is shown that the rear wild geese can effectively save energy with the aid of the upwash airflow generated by the flutter of the front wild geese, when they maintain proper position offsets. Moreover, the uniform consumption of energy of the overall cluster can be maintained by reasonable configuration transformation such that the long-endurance formation is warranted.
Borrowing from the intuition of the wild geese queue effect, we formulate a well-specified configuration of flapping-wing aerial vehicles with the least energy consumption, and design a mechanism of configuration transformation, which guarantees the optimization and uniformity of the overall energy consumption. In addition, referring to the interaction manner of the wild geese, we propose a control approach using local information such that the stable maintenance of the optimal configuration and the flexible transformation between distinct configurations are ensured. Finally, the simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed main results.