Prerequisites to Design a Collision Free Trajectory in a 3D Dynamic Environment for an UAV

Abstract

Abstract This research presents the main steps needed for designing a piece-wise linear trajectory which grants an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to reach a destination pose in a workspace with dynamic obstacles. The first objective is characterized by the examination of kinematics and dynamics of a quadcopter. For this purpose, a nonlinear mathematical model was developed. The validation of the mathematical model was confirmed by MATLAB and real time experiments. The second step aims to properly map the 3D environment. For this objective, an algorithm for a cuboid rectangular decomposition was developed and implemented, by extending a 2D decomposition technique. The evaluation of the proposed path planning algorithm occurred for different scenarios and the validation of the results was established through numerical simulations. In the end, a comparison for two path planning scenarios is shown: for a 3D static environment and for a 3D dynamic environment, where the movement of a dynamic obstacle is known.