Unmanned aerial vehicle formation obstacle avoidance control based on light transmission model and improved artificial potential field

Abstract

To overcome the limitations of the conventional artificial potential field (APF) method, which is commonly used for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation obstacle avoidance control. A novel UAV formation obstacle avoidance control method based on a light transmission model (LTM) and an improved APF method is proposed. First, inspired by the flight of bird flocks, we combine the LTM with an APF function to present an improved APF model which can help UAV find feasible free space to maneuver. From this, UAV can overcome the drawbacks of non-reachable and local minima under the action of LTM. Then, the obstacle avoidance strategy based on the fixed-wing UAV motion model is proposed, and the obstacle avoidance control algorithm for UAV formation is designed. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method, which can result in a dramatic improvement in the performance of UAV formation to obstacle avoidance under the complex and non-deterministic environment.

Vision-based UAV adaptive tracking control for moving targets with velocity observation

“…For sensors, the global positioning system (GPS) provides UAV localization but it is limited to outdoor without existence of tall buildings or dense forests, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) provides reliable acceleration and velocity information for UAVs but it accumulates errors. Visual sensors are lightweight and reliable that can both locate UAVs and detect targets in unknown environments, thus providing guarantee for schemes regarding autonomous flight, such as obstacle avoidance (Li et al, 2022; Singla et al, 2021), autonomous landing (An et al, 2023; Duan et al, 2020), path planning (Ma et al, 2018; Garibeh et al, 2022), and visual servoing (Li et al, 2023).…”

Path planning of unmanned surface vehicle based on artificial potential field approach considering virtual target points

“…If there are obstacles around the target, the repulsive force will be strong, and the attractive force will be weak, so the probability of the controlled object reaching the target position is very small. When the gravitational and repulsive forces are exactly the same size and in opposite directions, the target is likely to enter the optimum or vibrate (Li et al, 2022). To sum up, it is likely to cause the following two problems; as a result, the route planning task was unsuccessful, and the USV could not carry out the required water operations and transportation: (1) The problem of unreachable target.…”