Flight formation of UAVs in presence of moving obstacles using fast-dynamic mixed integer linear programming
Abstract
This paper proposes the implementation of fast-dynamic Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) and Path Smoother for efficient path planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in various flight formations. The UAVs taking part in a cooperative flight are assumed to be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) which enables sharing the flight information with neighboring aircraft. The design and implementation of flights for various formations have been carried out in a generic manner such that multiple UAVs with arbitrarily geographically located base stations can take part in collision-free formation flight. The paper formulates the problem of path of planning in the framework of a novel fast-dynamic MILP and proposes a cost function that minimizes time and energy consumption. The paper presents elaborate construction of constraint equations to enforce the formation to visit pre-defined way-points and avoid the collisions with any intruder aircraft. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been verified and compared with respect to the standard MILP method via a number of simulations carried out using different scenarios featuring multiple UAVs flying in various formations.
- Publication:
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Aerospace Science and Technology
- Pub Date:
- March 2016
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 2016AeST...50..149R
- Keywords:
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- UAV;
- NAS;
- MILP;
- ADS-B;
- Trajectory planning;
- Flight formation