Unified Robust Path Planning and Optimal Trajectory Generation for Efficient 3D Area Coverage of Quadrotor UAVs

Rekabi-Bana, Fatemeh; Hu, Junyan; Krajník, Tomáš; Arvin, Farshad

Abstract

Area coverage is an important problem in robotics applications, which has been widely used in search and rescue, offshore industrial inspection, and smart agriculture. This paper demonstrates a novel unified robust path planning, optimal trajectory generation, and control architecture for a quadrotor coverage mission. To achieve safe navigation in uncertain working environments containing obstacles, the proposed algorithm applies a modified probabilistic roadmap to generating a connected search graph considering the risk of collision with the obstacles. Furthermore, a recursive node and link generation scheme determines a more efficient search graph without extra complexity to reduce the computational burden during the planning procedure. An optimal three-dimensional trajectory generation is then suggested to connect the optimal discrete path generated by the planning algorithm, and the robust control policy is designed based on the cascade NLH∞ framework. The integrated framework is capable of compensating for the effects of uncertainties and disturbances while accomplishing the area coverage mission. The feasibility, robustness and performance of the proposed framework are evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations, PX4 Software-In-the-Loop test facility, and real-world experiments.

Citation

Rekabi-Bana, F., Hu, J., Krajník, T., & Arvin, F. (2024). Unified Robust Path Planning and Optimal Trajectory Generation for Efficient 3D Area Coverage of Quadrotor UAVs. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 25(3), 2492-2507. https://doi.org/10.1109/tits.2023.3320049

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 21, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Oct 17, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-03
• Deposit Date: Nov 7, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 7, 2023
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Print ISSN: 1524-9050
• Electronic ISSN: 1558-0016
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 2492-2507
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/tits.2023.3320049
• Keywords: Computer Science Applications; Mechanical Engineering; Automotive Engineering
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1899538