Mission plan under uncertainty for an autonomous aircraft

Abstract

In this article, a path planning system is presented, which enables the vehicle to move in a non-predefined way. Taking into account the situation detected by the sensors and on the basis of a spatial–temporal criterion, the proposed system is able to decide whether a new reference trajectory must be planned. If an update is necessary, the reference is computed taking into account the measured states (the three-dimensional (3D) positions, the flight path and heading angles, as well as the velocity), the limitations on curvature and torsion, and the next way-point that could be the final destination. As the simple geometric path planning procedure presented in this article can be implemented in real time, updated paths can easily be generated to accommodate a slowly drifting wind direction and/or wind speed.

Keywords

autonomous aircraft mission plan 3D path planning

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