Tyagi, Prakrit (IISERB), Liu, Cunjia (Loughborough University), Baliyarasimhuni, Sujit, P (IISER Bhopal)

Energy Optimal 3D Target Tracking Using Fixed-Wing UAV

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "UAS Applications III" (FrB5), Friday, June 24, 2022, 13:10−13:30, Elafiti

2022 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), June 21-24, 2022, Dubrovnik, Croatia

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

Abstract

Fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used for target tracking applications in urban regions. The environment, sensing and physical limitations of the vehicle, and the unknown target movement present several challenges in designing an efficient target controller. Some of these challenges include limited energy, obstacle avoidance, visibility restrictions due to obstacles and finite camera field-of-view and unknown target motion. In this paper, we present an economic model predictive controller (EMPC) that tracks the target efficiently while addressing all the mentioned challenges. The EMPC enables energy minimization while maximizing the tracking performance. The EMPC performance is validated through simulations by comparing with MPC controller and a greedy approach. The results show that the controller was able to track the target efficiently with no loss of target sight and consumed 3 times less energy than MPC. The greedy tracking strategy could not tracking the target well and lost the target.