Three-dimensional waypoint following for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles in obstacle-filled environments

Author(s):  
Nikhil Kumar Singh ◽  
Sikha Hota

The paper computes optimal paths for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles with bounded turn radii to follow a series of waypoints with specified directions in a three-dimensional obstacle-filled environment. In the existing literature, it was proved that the optimal path is of circular turn–straight line–circular turn (CSC) type for two consecutive waypoint configurations, when the points are sufficiently far apart and there is no obstacle in the field. The maximum of all minimum turn radii corresponding to all possible two-dimensional circular maneuvers was used for both the initial and final turns to develop the CSC-type paths. But, this paper considers the minimum turn radii for initial and final turns, corresponding to the maneuvering planes and which produces shorter CSC-type paths. In an obstacle-filled environment the shortest path may collide with obstacles, so a strategy is proposed to switch to the next best path that does not collide with obstacles. Using this technique, a series of waypoints is followed in the presence of obstacles of different types, for example, cylindrical, hemispherical, and spherical in shapes with different sizes. Finally, simulation results are presented to show the efficiency of the algorithm for obstacle avoidance. The computation time listed here indicates the potentiality of this algorithm for implementation in real time.

Author(s):  
Nurul Saliha Amani Ibrahim ◽  
Faiz Asraf Saparudin

The path planning problem has been a crucial topic to be solved in autonomous vehicles. Path planning consists operations to find the route that passes through all of the points of interest in a given area. Several algorithms have been proposed and outlined in the various literature for the path planning of autonomous vehicle especially for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The algorithms are not guaranteed to give full performance in each path planning cases but each one of them has their own specification which makes them suitable in sophisticated situation. This review paper evaluates several possible different path planning approaches of UAVs in terms optimal path, probabilistic completeness and computation time along with their application in specific problems.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seilendria A. Hadiwardoyo ◽  
Carlos T. Calafate ◽  
Juan-Carlos Cano ◽  
Kirill Krinkin ◽  
Dmitry Klionskiy ◽  
...  

In areas with limited infrastructure, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can come in handy as relays for car-to-car communications. Since UAVs are able to fully explore a three-dimensional environment while flying, communications that involve them can be affected by the irregularity of the terrains, that in turn can cause path loss by acting as obstacles. Accounting for this phenomenon, we propose a UAV positioning technique that relies on optimization algorithms to improve the support for vehicular communications. Simulation results show that the best position of the UAV can be timely determined considering the dynamic movement of the cars. Our technique takes into account the current flight altitude, the position of the cars on the ground, and the existing flight restrictions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Haifeng Ling ◽  
Hongchuan Luo ◽  
Haisong Chen ◽  
Linyuan Bai ◽  
Tao Zhu ◽  
...  

As an emerging topic, the swarm of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been attracting great attention. Due to the indeterminacy of sensors, distributed cooperative swarms have been considered to be efficient and robust but challenging to design and test. To facilitate the development of distributed swarms, it has been proposed to utilise a simulation platform for cooperative UAVs using imperfect perception. However, the existing simulation platforms cannot satisfy this demand due to a few reasons. First, they are designed for a specific purpose, and their functionalities are difficult to extend. Second, the existing platforms lack compatibility to be applied to different types of scenarios. Third, the modelling of these platforms is too simplified to simulate flight motion dynamic and noisy communication accurately, which may cause a difference in performance between the simulation and real-world application. To address the mentioned issues, this paper models the problem and proposes a simulation platform for distributed swarm cooperative perception, which addresses software engineering concerns and provides a set of extendable functionalities of a cooperative swarm, including communication, estimation, perception fusion, and path planning. The applicability of the proposed platform is verified by simulations with the real-world application. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed system is viable.


Robotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Taha Elmokadem ◽  
Andrey V. Savkin

Abstract Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become essential tools for exploring, mapping and inspection of unknown three-dimensional (3D) tunnel-like environments which is a very challenging problem. A computationally light navigation algorithm is developed in this paper for quadrotor UAVs to autonomously guide the vehicle through such environments. It uses sensors observations to safely guide the UAV along the tunnel axis while avoiding collisions with its walls. The approach is evaluated using several computer simulations with realistic sensing models and practical implementation with a quadrotor UAV. The proposed method is also applicable to other UAV types and autonomous underwater vehicles.


Author(s):  
Chenqi Zhu

In order to improve the guiding accuracy in intercepting the hypersonic vehicle, this article presents a finite-time guidance law based on the observer and head-pursuit theory. First, based on a two-dimensional model between the interceptor and target, this study applies the fast power reaching law to head-pursuit guidance law so that it can alleviate the chattering phenomenon and ensure the convergence speed. Second, target maneuvers are considered as system disturbances, and the head-pursuit guidance law based on an observer is proposed. Furthermore, this method is extended to a three-dimensional case. Finally, comparative simulation results further verify the superiority of the guidance laws designed in this article.


1995 ◽  
Vol 291 ◽  
pp. 369-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald D. Joslin

The spatial evolution of three-dimensional disturbances in an attachment-line boundary layer is computed by direct numerical simulation of the unsteady, incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Disturbances are introduced into the boundary layer by harmonic sources that involve unsteady suction and blowing through the wall. Various harmonic-source generators are implemented on or near the attachment line, and the disturbance evolutions are compared. Previous two-dimensional simulation results and nonparallel theory are compared with the present results. The three-dimensional simulation results for disturbances with quasi-two-dimensional features indicate growth rates of only a few percent larger than pure two-dimensional results; however, the results are close enough to enable the use of the more computationally efficient, two-dimensional approach. However, true three-dimensional disturbances are more likely in practice and are more stable than two-dimensional disturbances. Disturbances generated off (but near) the attachment line spread both away from and toward the attachment line as they evolve. The evolution pattern is comparable to wave packets in flat-plate boundary-layer flows. Suction stabilizes the quasi-two-dimensional attachment-line instabilities, and blowing destabilizes these instabilities; these results qualitatively agree with the theory. Furthermore, suction stabilizes the disturbances that develop off the attachment line. Clearly, disturbances that are generated near the attachment line can supply energy to attachment-line instabilities, but suction can be used to stabilize these instabilities.


Author(s):  
Zhe Zhang ◽  
Jian Wu ◽  
Jiyang Dai ◽  
Cheng He

For stealth unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), path security and search efficiency of penetration paths are the two most important factors in performing missions. This article investigates an optimal penetration path planning method that simultaneously considers the principles of kinematics, the dynamic radar cross-section of stealth UAVs, and the network radar system. By introducing the radar threat estimation function and a 3D bidirectional sector multilayer variable step search strategy into the conventional A-Star algorithm, a modified A-Star algorithm was proposed which aims to satisfy waypoint accuracy and the algorithm searching efficiency. Next, using the proposed penetration path planning method, new waypoints were selected simultaneously which satisfy the attitude angle constraints and rank-K fusion criterion of the radar system. Furthermore, for comparative analysis of different algorithms, the conventional A-Star algorithm, bidirectional multilayer A-Star algorithm, and modified A-Star algorithm were utilized to settle the penetration path problem that UAVs experience under various threat scenarios. Finally, the simulation results indicate that the paths obtained by employing the modified algorithm have optimal path costs and higher safety in a 3D complex network radar environment, which show the effectiveness of the proposed path planning scheme.


Robotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Daegyun Choi ◽  
Anirudh Chhabra ◽  
Donghoon Kim

Summary This paper proposes an intelligent cooperative collision avoidance approach combining the enhanced potential field (EPF) with a fuzzy inference system (FIS) to resolve local minima and goal non-reachable with obstacles nearby issues and provide a near-optimal collision-free trajectory. A genetic algorithm is utilized to optimize parameters of membership function and rule base of the FISs. This work uses a single scenario containing all issues and interactions among unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for training. For validating the performance, two scenarios containing obstacles with different shapes and several UAVs in small airspace are considered. Multiple simulation results show that the proposed approach outperforms the conventional EPF approach statistically.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document