Citation

Papen A, Vandenhoeck R, Bolting J, Defay F. IFAC-PapersOnLine 2017; 50(1): 282-289.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, International Federation of Automatic Control, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.047

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article discusses the rendezvous maneuver for a fleet of small fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Trajectories have to be generated on-line while avoiding collision with static and dynamic obstacles and minimizing rendezvous time. An approach based on Model Predictive Control (MPC) is investigated which assures that the dynamic constraints of the UAVs are satisfied at every time step. By introducing binary variables, a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem is formulated. Computation time is limited by incorporating the receding horizon technique. A shorter planning horizon strongly reduces computation time, but delays detection of obstacles which can lead to an infeasible path. The result is a robust path planning algorithm that satisfies the imposed constraints. However, further relaxation of the constraints and fine-tuning is necessary to limit complexity.

Language: en

Keywords

Collision avoidance; Mixed integer linear program; Model predictive control; Obstacle Avoidance; Optimal trajectory; Path planning; Receding horizon; Unmanned aerial vehicle