Generating Approximative Minimum Length Paths in 3D for UAVs

Flemming Schøler, Anders la Cour-Harbo, Morten Bisgaard

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceedingArticle in proceedingResearchpeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)
322 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We consider the challenge of planning a minimum length path from an initial position to a desired position for a rotorcraft. The path is found in a 3-dimensional Euclidean space containing a geometric obstacle. We base our approach on visibility graphs which have been used extensively for path planning in 2-dimensional Euclidean space. Generalizing to 3-dimensional space is not straight-forward, unless a visibility graph is generated that, when searched, will only provide an approximative minimum length path. Our approach generates such a visibility graph that is composed by an obstacle graph and two supporting graphs. The obstacle graph is generated by approximating a mesh around the conguration space obstacle, which is build from the convex hull of its work space counterpart. The supporting graphs are generated by nding the supporting lines between the initial or desired position and the mesh. An approximation to the optimal path can subsequently be found using an existing graph search algorithm. The presented approach is suitable for fully known environments with a single truly 3-dimensional (not merely "raised" 2-dimensional) obstacle. A example for generating a path for a small-scale helicopter operating near a building is shown.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIntelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2012 IEEE
Number of pages5
PublisherIEEE Press
Publication date2012
Pages229-233
ISBN (Print)978-1-4673-2119-8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Event2012 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV) - Madrid, Spain
Duration: 3 Jun 20127 Jun 2012

Conference

Conference2012 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)
Country/TerritorySpain
CityMadrid
Period03/06/201207/06/2012
SeriesI E E E Intelligent Vehicles Symposium
ISSN1931-0587

Keywords

  • Trajectory generation
  • obstacle avoidance
  • UAS

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