Garber, Mark (Texas A & M University), Rathinam, Sivakumar (Texas A & M University), Sharma, Rajnikant (University of Cincinnati)

A Grid-Based Path Planning Approach for a Team of Two Vehicles with Localization Constraints

Scheduled for presentation during the "Path Planning - III" (WeC2), Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 18:00−18:20, Salon AB

2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, June 13-16, 2017, Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay, Miami, FL,

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 19, 2024

Abstract

This paper proposes a path finding method for two unmanned aerial vehicles with localization constraints using a modified shortest path algorithm. A beacon vehicle has GPS or other absolute positioning information, and a target vehicle has only bearing information taken relative to the beacon vehicle or known stationary landmarks. By overlaying a grid on the map and discretizing the position uncertainty, the path planning problem for two vehicles can be formulated as a dynamic programming problem and solved using a modified form of the A^* shortest path algorithm. Edge costs are found using a factored covariance method for an Extended Kalman filter based on results available in literature. In simulation, paths found from the dynamic programming method outperform a greedy algorithm.