Zhang, Shuiqing (Sun Yat-sen University), Xu, Tianye (Sun Yat-sen University), Cheng, Hui (Sun Yat-Sen University), Liang, Fan (Sun Yat-sen University)

Collision Avoidance of Fixed-Wing UAVs in Dynamic Environments Based on Spline-RRT and Velocity Obstacle

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Path Planning I" (WeA2), Wednesday, September 2, 2020, 10:20−10:40, Kozani

2020 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), September 1-4, 2020 (Postponed from June 9-12, 2020), Athens, Greece

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 26, 2024

Abstract

It is crucial to online plan a smooth, continuous and collision-free path to navigate a fixed-wing unmanned aircraftthroughcomplexenvironments.Inastaticenvironment, given priori knowledge of the map, the sampling-based RRT (rapidly exploring random tree) method and its variants are efficient to provide global path planning to navigate the fixedwing aircraft through static obstacles. However, in complex and dynamic situations, the fixed-wing aircraft may encounter dynamic obstacles when following the planned global path. In the presence of dynamic obstacles within the sensing range of the fixed-wing aircraft, it is challenging to on-line generate a new collision-free and smooth path. In this paper, a real-time collision-free path planning strategy is proposed for fixed-wing aircraft in dynamic environments. Specifically, the proposed collision-free path planner named as Spline-RRT-VO is presented incorporating the spline-RRT algorithm and the velocity obstacle (VO) method to avoid a high-speed dynamic obstacle. In the proposed spline-RRT-VO approach, a random tree grows in the local area, meanwhile, the VO method is used to extend tree edges and reject unavailable nodes. It improves the tree growing in a more efficient and smooth manner. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the spline-RRT-VO method to navigate the fixed-wing UAVs through dynamic environments.