Keywords
autopilot, UAV, unmanned aircraft, path planning
Abstract
Autonomous unmanned air vehicle flight control systems require robust path generation to account for terrain obstructions, weather, and moving threats such as radar, jammers, and unfriendly aircraft. In this paper, we outline a feasible, hierarchal approach for real-time motion planning of small autonomous fixed-wing UAVs. The approach divides the trajectory generation into four tasks: waypoint path planning, dynamic trajectory smoothing, trajectory tracking, and low-level autopilot compensation. The waypoint path planner determines the vehicle's route without regard for the dynamic constraints of the vehicle. This results in a significant reduction in the path search space, enabling the generation of complicated paths that account for pop-up and dynamically moving threats. Kinematic constraints are satisfied using a trajectory smoother which has the same kinematic structure as the physical vehicle. The third step of the approach uses a novel tracking algorithm to generate a feasible state trajectory that can be followed by a standard autopilot. Monte-Carlo simulations were done to analyze the performance and feasibility of the approach and determine real-time computation requirements. A planar version of the algorithm has also been implemented and tested in a low-cost micro-controller. The paper describes a custom UAV built to test the algorithms.
Original Publication Citation
Randal W. Beard, Derek Kingston, Morgan Quigley, Deryl Snyder, Reed Christiansen, Walt Johnson, Timothy McLain, and Michael Goodrich. "Autonomous Vehicle Technologies for Small Fixed-Wing UAVs", Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2005), pp. 92-108. doi: 10.2514/1.8371
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Kingston, Derek B.; Beard, Randal; McLain, Timothy; Larsen, Michael; and Ren, Wei, "Autonomous Vehicle Technologies for Small Fixed Wing UAVs" (2003). Faculty Publications. 1514.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/1514
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2003-9
Permanent URL
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/3423
Publisher
AIAA
Language
English
College
Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Copyright Status
Kingston, D., Beard, R., McLain, T., Larsen, M., and Ren, W. Autonomous Vehicle Technologies for Small Fixed Wing UAVs, AIAA 2nd Unmanned Unlimited Systems, Technologies, and Operations — Aerospace, Land, and Sea Conference, Workshop, and Exhibit, AIAA-2003-6559, September 2003, San Diego, California. doi: 10.2514/6.2003-6559
Copyright Use Information
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/