Geometric Swarm Flocking with OWC Constraints

This paper presents a decentralized leader election algorithm for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms operating under Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) constraints. To enable interference-free, RF-independent coordination, the method unifies swarm initialization and navigation planning. Each UAV relies solely on local sensing and directional laserdiode communication without centralized control. Leadership is determined from a multi-criteria score combining compactness, neighborhood size, target proximity, and angular dispersion, followed by distributed conflict resolution and follower assignment. Large-scale simulations, up to 5000 UAVs, demonstrate full coverage, stable leader-follower structures, and high leadership quality with low communication overhead, confirming the scalability and robustness of the approach.