Model for planning routes for a homogeneous group of unmanned aerial vehicles

Abstract

The article determines that currently there are a significant number of models and methods that allow for effective planning of UAV movement routes to perform tasks, however, the next stage in the development of robotic technologies is the collective use of heterogeneous systems to perform common tasks. Simultaneous arrival at the required location or locations is one of the elements of mission execution that requires joint planning and coordination between UAVs in the group. The mission objective is that the UAV group must reach the destination simultaneously, which is achieved by creating trajectories of equal length, assuming that all UAVs fly at the same speed. The article further develops a model for planning the routes of a homogeneous group of unmanned aerial vehicles, which, unlike existing ones, takes into account the limitations and requirements for UAV safety and ensures the simultaneous arrival of the group to the final point of the mission. The planning model has three stages, taking into account the maximum curvature constraint and collision avoidance. In the first stage, permissible routes are created, in the second stage, the resulting routes are modified to obtain routes with safety constraints. In the third stage, routes of equal length are created. A route planner scheme and a flowchart of the algorithm for simultaneous arrival of UAVs at the destination are developed. Methods based on Dubins curves, hodographic curves, clothoid trajectories are used to construct UAV movement routes and coordinate the actions of the group to complete the mission. The speed of model calculations can be accelerated by using a global planner to create waypoints and/or positions or by creating intermediate waypoints.