scholarly journals UAV Path Planning for Reconnaissance and Look-Ahead Coverage Support for Mobile Ground Vehicles

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4595
Author(s):  
Herath M. P. C. Jayaweera ◽  
Samer Hanoun

Path planning of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for reconnaissance and look-ahead coverage support for mobile ground vehicles (MGVs) is a challenging task due to many unknowns being imposed by the MGVs’ variable velocity profiles, change in heading, and structural differences between the ground and air environments. Few path planning techniques have been reported in the literature for multirotor UAVs that autonomously follow and support MGVs in reconnaissance missions. These techniques formulate the path planning problem as a tracking problem utilizing gimbal sensors to overcome the coverage and reconnaissance complexities. Despite their lack of considering additional objectives such as reconnaissance coverage and dynamic environments, they retain several drawbacks, including high computational requirements, hardware dependency, and low performance when the MGV has varying velocities. In this study, a novel 3D path planning technique for multirotor UAVs is presented, the enhanced dynamic artificial potential field (ED-APF), where path planning is formulated as both a follow and cover problem with nongimbal sensors. The proposed technique adopts a vertical sinusoidal path for the UAV that adapts relative to the MGV’s position and velocity, guided by the MGV’s heading for reconnaissance and exploration of areas and routes ahead beyond the MGV sensors’ range, thus extending the MGV’s reconnaissance capabilities. The amplitude and frequency of the sinusoidal path are determined to maximize the required look-ahead visual coverage quality in terms of pixel density and quantity pertaining to the area covered. The ED-APF was tested and validated against the general artificial potential field techniques for various simulation scenarios using Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo-supported PX4-SITL. It demonstrated superior performance and showed its suitability for reconnaissance and look-ahead support to MGVs in dynamic and obstacle-populated environments.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 8987
Author(s):  
Muhammad Zulfaqar Azmi ◽  
Toshio Ito

This work considers the path planning problem of personal mobility vehicle (PMV) for indoor navigation using the Artificial Potential Field (APF) method. The APF method sometimes suffers from an infinite loop problem during the planning phase when the goal is blocked by obstacles with certain characteristics. To address the issue, this study deploys the map augmentation method for replanning. When infinite loop situations occur, the map is transformed and the search for drivable path is initiated. The method successfully generates a feasible trajectory when the map is rotated at a certain angle. The scenario of successful planning is shown in the result.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behrang Mohajer ◽  
Kourosh Kiani ◽  
Ehsan Samiei ◽  
Mostafa Sharifi

A new algorithm named random particle optimization algorithm (RPOA) for local path planning problem of mobile robots in dynamic and unknown environments is proposed. The new algorithm inspired from bacterial foraging technique is based on particles which are randomly distributed around a robot. These particles search the optimal path toward the target position while avoiding the moving obstacles by getting help from the robot’s sensors. The criterion of optimal path selection relies on the particles distance to target and Gaussian cost function assign to detected obstacles. Then, a high level decision making strategy will decide to select best mobile robot path among the proceeded particles, and finally a low level decision control provides a control signal for control of considered holonomic mobile robot. This process is implemented without requirement to tuning algorithm or complex calculation, and furthermore, it is independent from gradient base methods such as heuristic (artificial potential field) methods. Therefore, in this paper, the problem of local mobile path planning is free from getting stuck in local minima and is easy computed. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, some simulations in three various scenarios are performed and results are compared by the artificial potential field.


2012 ◽  
Vol 562-564 ◽  
pp. 955-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zai Xin Liu ◽  
Long Xiang Yang ◽  
Jin Ge Wang

To improve the success rate of Soccer Robot Path Planning, artificial potential field is amended, autonomous potential field is presented to solve the path planning problem by analyzing shortcomings of the basic shooting algorithm, the autonomous potential field function centering on the soccer robot is constructed, and the robot’s movement in the new potential field is analyzed, the modified artificial potential field model and autonomous potential field model is contrasted, each vicinal potential energy of the modified artificial potential field model and autonomous potential field model is analyzed. The simulated results demonstrate that this method can optimize the path of a soccer robot, decrease the complexity, enhance the real time capability, perform the shooting action better, and improve the success rate of a soccer robot shooting a goal.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 172988142110264
Author(s):  
Jiqing Chen ◽  
Chenzhi Tan ◽  
Rongxian Mo ◽  
Hongdu Zhang ◽  
Ganwei Cai ◽  
...  

Among the shortcomings of the A* algorithm, for example, there are many search nodes in path planning, and the calculation time is long. This article proposes a three-neighbor search A* algorithm combined with artificial potential fields to optimize the path planning problem of mobile robots. The algorithm integrates and improves the partial artificial potential field and the A* algorithm to address irregular obstacles in the forward direction. The artificial potential field guides the mobile robot to move forward quickly. The A* algorithm of the three-neighbor search method performs accurate obstacle avoidance. The current pose vector of the mobile robot is constructed during obstacle avoidance, the search range is narrowed to less than three neighbors, and repeated searches are avoided. In the matrix laboratory environment, grid maps with different obstacle ratios are compared with the A* algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed improved algorithm avoids concave obstacle traps and shortens the path length, thus reducing the search time and the number of search nodes. The average path length is shortened by 5.58%, the path search time is shortened by 77.05%, and the number of path nodes is reduced by 88.85%. The experimental results fully show that the improved A* algorithm is effective and feasible and can provide optimal results.


Author(s):  
Zhengyan Chang ◽  
Zhengwei Zhang ◽  
Qiang Deng ◽  
Zheren Li

The artificial potential field method is usually applied to the path planning problem of driverless cars or mobile robots. For example, it has been applied for the obstacle avoidance problem of intelligent cars and the autonomous navigation system of storage robots. However, there have been few studies on its application to intelligent bridge cranes. The artificial potential field method has the advantages of being a simple algorithm with short operation times. However, it is also prone to problems of unreachable targets and local minima. Based on the analysis of the operating characteristics of bridge cranes, a two-dimensional intelligent running environment model of a bridge crane was constructed in MATLAB. According to the basic theory of the artificial potential field method, the double-layer artificial potential field method was deduced, and the path and track fuzzy processing method was proposed. These two methods were implemented in MATLAB simulations. The results showed that the improved artificial potential field method could avoid static obstacles efficiently.


IEEE Access ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 135513-135523
Author(s):  
Qingfeng Yao ◽  
Zeyu Zheng ◽  
Liang Qi ◽  
Haitao Yuan ◽  
Xiwang Guo ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2114
Author(s):  
Wenlin Yang ◽  
Peng Wu ◽  
Xiaoqi Zhou ◽  
Haoliang Lv ◽  
Xiaokai Liu ◽  
...  

Aiming at the problems of “local minimum” and “unreachable target” existing in the traditional artificial potential field method in path planning, an improved artificial potential field method was proposed after analyzing the fundamental causes of the above problems. The method solved the problem of local minimum by modifying the direction and influence range of the gravitational field, increasing the virtual target and evaluation function, and the problem of unreachable targets is solved by increasing gravity. In view of the change of motion state of robot fish in amphibious environments, the improved artificial potential field method was fused with a dynamic window algorithm, and a dynamic window evaluation function of the optimal path was designed on the basis of establishing the dynamic equations of land and underwater. Then, the simulation experiment was designed under the environment of Matlab2019a. Firstly, the improved and traditional artificial potential field methods were compared. The results showed that the improved artificial potential field method could solve the above two problems well, shorten the operation time and path length, and have high efficiency. Secondly, the influence of different motion modes on path planning is verified, and the result also reflects that the amphibious robot can avoid obstacles flexibly and reach the target point accurately according to its own motion ability. This paper provides a new way of path planning for the amphibious robot.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document