Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Obstacle Avoidance Based Custom Elliptic Domain

Abstract

The velocity obstacles (VO) method is widely employed in real-time obstacle avoidance research for UAVs due to its succinct mathematical foundation and rapid, dynamic planning abilities. Traditionally, VO assumes a circle protection domain with a fixed radius, leading to issues such as excessive conservatism of obstacle avoidance areas, longer detour paths, and unnecessary avoidance angles. To overcome these challenges, this paper firstly reviews the fundamentals and pre-existing defects of the VO methodology. Next, we explore a scenario involving UAVs in head-on conflicts and introduce an elliptic velocity obstacle method tailored to the UAV’s current flight state. This method connects the protection domain size directly to the UAV’s flight state, transitioning from the conventional circle domain to a more efficient elliptic domain. Additionally, to manage the computational demands of Minkowski sums and velocity obstacle cones, an approximation algorithm for discretizing elliptic boundary points is introduced. A strategy to mitigate unilateral velocity oscillation had is developed. Comparative validation simulations in MATLAB R2022a confirm that, based on the experimental results for the first 10 s, the apex angle of the velocity obstacle cone for the elliptical domain is, on average, reduced by 0.1733 radians compared to the circular domain per unit simulation time interval, saving an airspace area of 13,292 square meters and reducing the detour distance by 14.92 m throughout the obstacle avoidance process, facilitating navigation in crowded situations and improving airspace utilization.