Terrain based co‐operative UAV mapping of complex obstacles using 2‐D splinegon

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to describe a recently proposed algorithm in terrain‐based cooperative UAV mapping of the unknown complex obstacle in a stationary environment where the complex obstacles are represented as curved in nature. It also aims to use an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to estimate the fused position of the UAVs and to apply the 2‐D splinegon technique to build the map of the complex shaped obstacles. The path of the UAVs are dictated by the Dubins path planning algorithm. The focus is to achieve a guaranteed performance of sensor based mapping of the uncertain environments using multiple UAVs.

Design/methodology/approach

An extended Kalman filter is used to estimate the position of the UAVs, and the 2‐D splinegon technique is used to build the map of the complex obstacle where the path of the UAVs are dictated by the Dubins path planning algorithm.

Findings

The guaranteed performance is quantified by explicit bounds of the position estimate of the multiple UAVs for mapping of the complex obstacles using 2‐D splinegon technique. This is a newly proposed algorithm, the most efficient and a robust way in terrain based mapping of the complex obstacles. The proposed method can provide mathematically provable and performance guarantees that are achievable in practice.

Originality/value

The paper describes the main contribution in mapping the complex shaped curvilinear objects using the 2‐D splinegon technique. This is a new approach where the fused EKF estimated positions are used with the limited number of sensors' measurements in building the map of the complex obstacles.

Citation

Lazarus, S.B., Tsourdos, A., White, B.A., Silson, P., Savvaris, A., Rabbath, C. and Lèchevin, N. (2012), "Terrain based co‐operative UAV mapping of complex obstacles using 2‐D splinegon", International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 248-292. https://doi.org/10.1108/17563781211255853