A simple and adaptive on-line path planning system for a UAV

Abstract

This paper presents a guidance algorithm for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It combines a nonlinear lateral guidance control law, originally designed for UAVs tracking circles for mid-air rendezvous, with a new simple adaptive path planning algorithm. Preflight path planning only consists of storing a few way points guiding the aircraft to its targets. The paper presents an efficient way to model no-fly zones, to generate a path in real-time to avoid known or "pop-up" obstacles, and to reconfigure the flight path in the event of reduced aircraft performance. Simulation results show the good performance of this reconfigurable guidance system which, moreover, is computationally efficient.