To read this content please select one of the options below:

Integrated waypoint path generation and following of an unmanned aerial vehicle

Sanghyo Lee (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea)
Am Cho (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea)
Changdon Kee (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea)

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

ISSN: 0002-2667

Article publication date: 7 September 2010

950

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an efficient method to integrate path generation and following for an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Design/methodology/approach

The shortest path is briefly reviewed using a straight line and a circular arc in a horizontal plane. Based on shortest paths, various path generation algorithms using oriented waypoints are described. Path design unit, which is structured concatenations of line segments and circular arcs, is proposed to represent different paths as one structure. Simple path following controller to follow a straight line and a circle was also implemented with linear‐quadratic regulator control laws. Some flight tests were conducted to verify the efficiency of proposed algorithm.

Findings

Proposed method represents various paths between given waypoints efficiently by a small number of parameters. It does not need a large amount of memory storage and computation time to run in real time on a low‐cost microprocessor.

Originality/value

This paper provides new structured method to generate different paths efficiently including Dubins' set, which makes path following easy by simple switching logic. It needs small computational time to run in real time. The proposed algorithm in this paper could be used as a basis of other applications such as air traffic control and curved landing approach, which require more accurate path control.

Keywords

Citation

Lee, S., Cho, A. and Kee, C. (2010), "Integrated waypoint path generation and following of an unmanned aerial vehicle", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 82 No. 5, pp. 296-304. https://doi.org/10.1108/00022661011092947

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles