Obstacle Avoidance Framework Based on Reach Sets

This paper reports preliminary investigations concerning the development of a LIDAR based sense and avoid (SAA) system with a low computational footprint for small Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). The focus is on the integration with nominal flight control systems and on computational feasibility. The proposed system decomposes the SAA problem into the following components detection, space assessment, escape trajectory estimation and avoidance execution. The control logic is encoded with the help of a hybrid automaton. The properties of the system are studied with the help of approximations to time slices of the UAV reach set.

[1]  Michael Schultz,et al.  Dynamic Airspace Sectorization using Controller Task Load , 2016 .

[2]  Ernest Friedman Hill,et al.  Jess in Action: Java Rule-Based Systems , 2003 .

[3]  P. Kent,et al.  Tree-searching and tree-pruning techniques , 1988 .

[4]  Alberto Bemporad,et al.  An MPC/hybrid system approach to traction control , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

[5]  Confesor Santiago,et al.  UAS Well Clear Recovery Against Non-Cooperative Intruders Using Vertical Maneuvers , 2017 .

[6]  Ian Postlethwaite,et al.  A Probabilistically Robust Path Planning Algorithm for UAVs Using Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees , 2013, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[7]  Mykel J. Kochenderfer,et al.  Encounter modeling for sense and avoid development , 2008, 2008 Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Conference.

[8]  J. Junkins,et al.  Analytical Mechanics of Space Systems , 2003 .

[9]  David G. Ward,et al.  A Hybrid A*/Automaton Approach to On-Line Path Planning with Obstacle Avoidance , 2004 .

[10]  Jacco M. Hoekstra,et al.  Designing for safety: the 'free flight' air traffic management concept , 2002, Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf..

[11]  Jianghai Hu,et al.  Application of Reachability Analysis for Stochastic Hybrid Systems to Aircraft Conflict Prediction , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.

[12]  Reid G. Simmons,et al.  The curvature-velocity method for local obstacle avoidance , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[13]  J. Pinto,et al.  Neptus - a framework to support multiple vehicle operation , 2005, Europe Oceans 2005.

[14]  Franz Andert,et al.  An Unmanned Helicopter for Autonomous Flights in Urban Terrain , 2009 .

[15]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  LIDAR Obstacle Warning and Avoidance System for Unmanned Aircraft , 2014 .

[16]  George J. Vachtsevanos,et al.  UAV Sense, Detect and Avoid: Introduction , 2015 .

[17]  Pascal Van Hentenryck,et al.  Constraint-based local search , 2018, Handbook of Heuristics.

[18]  C.R. Brinton,et al.  Airspace partitioning using flight clustering and computational geometry , 2008, 2008 IEEE/AIAA 27th Digital Avionics Systems Conference.

[19]  J. Lygeros,et al.  A game theoretic approach to controller design for hybrid systems , 2000, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[20]  George Leitmann OPTIMALITY AND REACHABILITY WITH FEEDBACK CONTROL , 1982 .

[21]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  Towards a unified approach to cooperative and non-cooperative RPAS detect-and-avoid , 2014 .

[22]  Roy Rasmussen,et al.  A Numerical Weather Model’s Ability to Predict Characteristics of Aircraft Icing Environments , 2017 .

[23]  Donato Malerba,et al.  A Comparative Analysis of Methods for Pruning Decision Trees , 1997, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[24]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  Next Generation Flight Management System for Real-Time Trajectory Based Operations , 2014 .

[25]  Jack Ritter,et al.  An efficient bounding sphere , 1990 .

[26]  Hui X. Li,et al.  A probabilistic approach to optimal robust path planning with obstacles , 2006, 2006 American Control Conference.

[27]  João Borges de Sousa,et al.  Implementation of a Control Architecture for Networked Vehicle Systems , 2012 .

[28]  Frank L. Lewis,et al.  Aircraft control and simulation: Dynamics, controls design, and autonomous systems: Third edition , 2015 .

[29]  Chi-Hoon Lee,et al.  Clustering spatial data when facing physical constraints , 2002, 2002 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, 2002. Proceedings..

[30]  Karl D. Bilimoria,et al.  Analysis of Aircraft Clusters to Measure Sector-Independent Airspace Congestion , 2005 .

[31]  Franco Blanchini,et al.  Set invariance in control , 1999, Autom..

[32]  Paul Shaw,et al.  Using Constraint Programming and Local Search Methods to Solve Vehicle Routing Problems , 1998, CP.

[33]  César Muñoz,et al.  A TCAS-II Resolution Advisory Detection Algorithm , 2013 .

[34]  Patrick E. O'Neil,et al.  The log-structured merge-tree (LSM-tree) , 1996, Acta Informatica.

[35]  Swati Mishra,et al.  Maze Solving Algorithms for Micro Mouse , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Signal Image Technology and Internet Based Systems.

[36]  B. Bethke,et al.  Real-time indoor autonomous vehicle test environment , 2008, IEEE Control Systems.

[37]  J. Butcher The numerical analysis of ordinary differential equations: Runge-Kutta and general linear methods , 1987 .

[38]  Daniel Axehill,et al.  Path tracking and stabilization for a reversing general 2-trailer configuration using a cascaded control approach , 2016, 2016 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV).

[39]  C Ellis-Stoll Recommended practices. , 1995, AORN journal.

[40]  M. P. Helme,et al.  Optimization of traffic flow to minimize delay in the National Airspace System , 1992, [Proceedings 1992] The First IEEE Conference on Control Applications.

[41]  Nico Zimmer,et al.  Rule-based NOTAM & Weather notification , 2011, 2011 Integrated Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance Conference Proceedings.

[42]  Fredrik Gustafsson,et al.  Statistical Sensor Fusion , 2013 .

[43]  L. Shepp,et al.  OPTIMAL PATHS FOR A CAR THAT GOES BOTH FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS , 1990 .

[44]  Yoram Koren,et al.  The vector field histogram-fast obstacle avoidance for mobile robots , 1991, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[45]  Philippe Souères,et al.  Optimal trajectories for nonholonomic mobile robots , 1998 .

[46]  George J. Pappas,et al.  Hierarchically consistent control systems , 1998, Proceedings of the 37th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (Cat. No.98CH36171).

[47]  Min-Jea Tahk,et al.  UAV collision avoidance using probabilistic method in 3-D , 2007, 2007 International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems.

[48]  Karl Henrik Johansson,et al.  Survey on Communication and Networks for Autonomous Marine Systems , 2019, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[49]  Jon M. Kleinberg,et al.  A Microeconomic View of Data Mining , 1998, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery.

[50]  Kaoru Hirota,et al.  Concepts of probabilistic sets , 1977, 1977 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control including the 16th Symposium on Adaptive Processes and A Special Symposium on Fuzzy Set Theory and Applications.

[51]  Alexandre M. Bayen,et al.  Lagrangian Delay Predictive Model for Sector-Based Air Traffic Flow , 2005 .

[52]  Miroslav Fikar,et al.  A Parametric Programming Approach to Automated Integrated Circuit Design , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

[53]  Arnab Majumdar,et al.  Recovery from Equipment Failures in Air Traffic Control (ATC): The Findings from an International Survey of Controllers , 2007 .

[54]  Daniel Axehill,et al.  Path following control for a reversing general 2-trailer system , 2016, 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC).

[55]  Charles V. Stewart,et al.  A probabilistic representation of LiDAR range data for efficient 3D object detection , 2008, 2008 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops.

[56]  Jonathan P. How,et al.  Real-Time Motion Planning With Applications to Autonomous Urban Driving , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

[57]  A. I. Subbotin,et al.  Game-Theoretical Control Problems , 1987 .

[58]  Jay Shively UAS Integration in the NAS: Detect and Avoid , 2018 .

[59]  Eduardo R. B. Marques,et al.  IMC: A communication protocol for networked vehicles and sensors , 2009, OCEANS 2009-EUROPE.

[60]  L. Dubins On Curves of Minimal Length with a Constraint on Average Curvature, and with Prescribed Initial and Terminal Positions and Tangents , 1957 .

[61]  Marcus Johnson,et al.  UAS Traffic Management (UTM) Concept of Operations to Safely Enable Low Altitude Flight Operations , 2016 .

[62]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  Automated ATM system for 4-dimensional trajectory based operations , 2015 .

[63]  S. Shankar Sastry,et al.  Probabilistic pursuit-evasion games: theory, implementation, and experimental evaluation , 2002, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[64]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  Multiobjective 4D Trajectory Optimization for Integrated Avionics and Air Traffic Management Systems , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[65]  F. Nex,et al.  UAV for 3D mapping applications: a review , 2014 .

[66]  Marcello Cirillo,et al.  From videogames to autonomous trucks: A new algorithm for lattice-based motion planning , 2017, 2017 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV).

[67]  Ira M. Gessel,et al.  A probabilistic method for lattice path enumeration , 1986 .

[68]  John Mingers,et al.  An Empirical Comparison of Pruning Methods for Decision Tree Induction , 1989, Machine Learning.

[69]  G. K. Rutledge,et al.  NOMADS A Climate and Weather Model Archive at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , 2006 .

[70]  Jason J. Ford,et al.  See and Avoid Using Onboard Computer Vision , 2012 .

[71]  Abu Bakar Sayuti Saman,et al.  Design and Implementation of a Robot for Maze-Solving using Flood-Fill Algorithm , 2012 .

[72]  C. Scherer,et al.  A game theoretic approach to nonlinear robust receding horizon control of constrained systems , 1997, Proceedings of the 1997 American Control Conference (Cat. No.97CH36041).

[73]  K. Klamroth,et al.  Path Planning for UAVs in the Presence of Threat Zones Using Probabilistic Modeling , 2005 .

[74]  David H. Williams Self-Separation in Terminal Areas Using CDTI , 1983 .

[75]  Tor Arne Johansen,et al.  Coordinated control concept for recovery of a fixed-wing UAV on a ship using a net carried by multirotor UAVs , 2016, 2016 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[76]  Seungman Lee,et al.  Ensuring Interoperability Between Unmanned Aircraft Detect-and-Avoid and Manned Aircraft Collision Avoidance , 2017 .

[77]  Kristin M. Calhoun,et al.  Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) Severe Weather and Aviation Products: Initial Operating Capabilities , 2016 .

[78]  S. Magyarits,et al.  Dynamic density: measuring and predicting sector complexity [ATC] , 2002, Proceedings. The 21st Digital Avionics Systems Conference.

[79]  Stavros Tripakis,et al.  The Tool KRONOS , 1996, Hybrid Systems.

[80]  João Borges de Sousa,et al.  Neptus - A Framework to Support a Mission Life Cycle , 2006 .

[81]  Thomas P. Spriesterbach,et al.  Unmanned Aircraft System Airspace Integration in the National Airspace Using a Ground-Based Sense and Avoid System , 2013 .

[82]  Confesor Santiago,et al.  NAS-Wide Fast-Time Simulation Study for Evaluating Performance of UAS Detect-and-Avoid Alerting and Guidance Systems , 2016 .

[83]  Sandeep Gupta,et al.  Comparative Analysis of Clustering-Based Approaches for 3-D Single Tree Detection Using Airborne Fullwave Lidar Data , 2010, Remote. Sens..

[84]  Ricardo Martins,et al.  The LSTS toolchain for networked vehicle systems , 2013, 2013 MTS/IEEE OCEANS - Bergen.

[85]  Daniel Axehill,et al.  Lattice-based motion planning for a general 2-trailer system , 2017, 2017 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV).

[86]  William Whittaker,et al.  Autonomous driving in urban environments: Boss and the Urban Challenge , 2008, J. Field Robotics.

[87]  Pravin Varaiya,et al.  Reach Set Computation Using Optimal Control , 2000 .

[88]  Catherine Plaisant,et al.  SpaceTree: supporting exploration in large node link tree, design evolution and empirical evaluation , 2002, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, 2002. INFOVIS 2002..

[89]  M. Bardi,et al.  Optimal Control and Viscosity Solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Equations , 1997 .

[90]  Paolo Fiorini,et al.  Motion Planning in Dynamic Environments Using Velocity Obstacles , 1998, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[91]  Christopher D. Wickens,et al.  EFFECTS OF CDTI DISPLAY DIMENSIONALITY AND CONFLICT GEOMETRY ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION PERFORMANCE , 2005 .

[92]  Emo Welzl,et al.  Smallest enclosing disks (balls and ellipsoids) , 1991, New Results and New Trends in Computer Science.

[93]  T. Shmelova,et al.  Modeling of the decision making by UAV's operator in emergency situations , 2016, 2016 4th International Conference on Methods and Systems of Navigation and Motion Control (MSNMC).

[94]  Zhaodan Kong,et al.  A Survey of Motion Planning Algorithms from the Perspective of Autonomous UAV Guidance , 2010, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[95]  D. M. Y. Sommerville Analytical geometry of three dimensions , 1934 .

[96]  K. Lehnertz,et al.  The epileptic process as nonlinear deterministic dynamics in a stochastic environment: an evaluation on mesial temporal lobe epilepsy , 2001, Epilepsy Research.

[97]  Tor Arne Johansen,et al.  Nonlinear Control with Swing Damping of a Multirotor UAV with Suspended Load , 2017, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[98]  Thomas A. Henzinger,et al.  HYTECH: the next generation , 1995, Proceedings 16th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium.

[99]  Moritz Diehl,et al.  ACADO toolkit—An open‐source framework for automatic control and dynamic optimization , 2011 .

[100]  Claire J. Tomlin,et al.  Quadrotor Helicopter Trajectory Tracking Control , 2008 .

[101]  Michael Ian Shamos,et al.  Closest-point problems , 1975, 16th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (sfcs 1975).

[102]  John J. Leonard,et al.  Navigation of unmanned marine vehicles in accordance with the rules of the road , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[103]  Mike Marston,et al.  ACAS-Xu Initial Self-Separation Flight Tests , 2015 .

[104]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  Real-Time Trajectory Optimisation Models for Next Generation Air Traffic Management Systems , 2014 .

[105]  Jing Liu,et al.  LIDAR obstacle warning and avoidance system for unmanned aerial vehicle sense-and-avoid , 2016 .

[106]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  Avionics sensor fusion for small size unmanned aircraft Sense-and-Avoid , 2014, 2014 IEEE Metrology for Aerospace (MetroAeroSpace).

[107]  Darius Burschka,et al.  Efficient occupancy grid computation on the GPU with lidar and radar for road boundary detection , 2010, 2010 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium.

[108]  Roberto Sabatini,et al.  Navigation and Guidance System Architectures for Small Unmanned Aircraft Applications , 2014 .

[109]  Yoram Koren,et al.  Potential field methods and their inherent limitations for mobile robot navigation , 1991, Proceedings. 1991 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[110]  Frank Ortmeier,et al.  Model-Based Local Path Planning for UAVs , 2015, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[111]  Roland E. Weibel Safety Considerations for Operation of Different Classes of UAVs in the NAS , 2004 .

[112]  Mykel J. Kochenderfer,et al.  Policy compression for aircraft collision avoidance systems , 2016, 2016 IEEE/AIAA 35th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC).

[113]  B. T. Poljak,et al.  Lectures on mathematical theory of extremum problems , 1972 .

[114]  Volodymyr Kharchenko,et al.  MODELLING OF DECISION MAKING OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE'S OPERATOR IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS , 2017 .

[115]  Chetan S. Kulkarni,et al.  Dynamic Routing of Aircraft in the Presence of Adverse Weather Using a POMDP Framework , 2017 .

[116]  J.K. Hedrick,et al.  Border patrol and surveillance missions using multiple unmanned air vehicles , 2004, 2004 43rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37601).

[117]  Pedro Casau,et al.  Autonomous Transition Flight for a Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft , 2011, IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference.

[118]  Zhuoning Dong,et al.  A hybrid approach of virtual force and A∗ search algorithm for UAV path re-planning , 2011, 2011 6th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications.

[119]  Steven M. LaValle,et al.  On the Relationship between Classical Grid Search and Probabilistic Roadmaps , 2004, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[120]  P. Varaiya,et al.  Dynamic Optimization for Reachability Problems , 2001 .

[121]  J.K. Hedrick,et al.  A mode-switching path planner for UAV-assisted search and rescue , 2005, Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[122]  P. Rietveld,et al.  The impact of climate change and weather on transport: An overview of empirical findings , 2009 .

[123]  H. Samelson,et al.  A partition theorem for Euclidean $n$-space , 1958 .

[124]  Ross A. Knepper,et al.  Differentially constrained mobile robot motion planning in state lattices , 2009 .

[125]  Vladimir Havlena,et al.  Combined partial conjugate gradient and gradient projection solver for MPC , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Control Applications (CCA).

[126]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  Low-cost sensors data fusion for small size unmanned aerial vehicles navigation and guidance , 2013 .

[127]  Emilio Frazzoli,et al.  Trajectory tracking control design for autonomous helicopters using a backstepping algorithm , 2000, Proceedings of the 2000 American Control Conference. ACC (IEEE Cat. No.00CH36334).

[128]  Qingfeng Huang,et al.  An adaptive peer-to-peer collision warning system , 2002, Vehicular Technology Conference. IEEE 55th Vehicular Technology Conference. VTC Spring 2002 (Cat. No.02CH37367).

[129]  Alessandro Gardi,et al.  Novel Flight Management System for Real-Time 4-Dimensional Trajectory Based Operations , 2013 .

[130]  Erik-Jan Van Kampen,et al.  Velocity Obstacle Method for Non-cooperative Autonomous Collision Avoidance System for UAVs , 2014 .

[131]  Andrew J. Cook,et al.  European air traffic management : principles, practice, and research , 2007 .

[132]  S. LaValle Rapidly-exploring random trees : a new tool for path planning , 1998 .

[133]  Mircea Lazar,et al.  Model predictive control of hybrid systems : stability and robustness , 2006 .

[134]  Lorenzo Marconi,et al.  A control framework for robust practical tracking of hybrid automata , 2009, Proceedings of the 48h IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) held jointly with 2009 28th Chinese Control Conference.

[135]  Daniel V. McGehee,et al.  Collision Warning Timing, Driver Distraction, and Driver Response to Imminent Rear-End Collisions in a High-Fidelity Driving Simulator , 2002, Hum. Factors.

[136]  Tor Arne Johansen,et al.  Autonomous UAV surveillance of a ship's path with MPC for maritime situational awareness , 2017, 2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[137]  Alessandro Berni,et al.  An Underwater Convergence Layer for Disruption Tolerant Networking , 2011, 2011 Baltic Congress on Future Internet and Communications.

[138]  Thomas Ottmann,et al.  Algorithms for Reporting and Counting Geometric Intersections , 1979, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[139]  Frederic Py,et al.  Towards Deliberative Control in Marine Robotics , 2013 .

[140]  Qi Chen Airborne Lidar Data Processing and Information Extraction , 2007 .

[141]  Lawrence F. Shampine,et al.  The MATLAB ODE Suite , 1997, SIAM J. Sci. Comput..

[142]  Eric R. Mueller,et al.  Pilot Evaluation of a UAS Detect-and-Avoid System's Effectiveness in Remaining Well Clear , 2015 .

[143]  Edward A. Lee,et al.  Structure and interpretation of signals and systems , 2002 .

[144]  F. G. Pin,et al.  Autonomous Trajectory Generation for Mobile Robots with Non-Holonomic and Steering Angle Constraints , 1990, Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Motion Control.

[145]  Thomas A. Henzinger,et al.  Symbolic Model Checking for Real-Time Systems , 1994, Inf. Comput..

[146]  Bruce W. Weide,et al.  Optimal Expected-Time Algorithms for Closest Point Problems , 1980, TOMS.

[147]  Raffaele Mauro,et al.  Potential Accident Rate of Turbo-Roundabouts , 2010 .

[148]  Carlos Silvestre,et al.  Trajectory Tracking for Autonomous Vehicles: An Integrated Approach to Guidance and Control , 1998 .

[149]  Marina H. Murillo,et al.  Generalized nonlinear optimal predictive control using iterative state-space trajectories: Applications to autonomous flight of UAVs , 2015, International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems.

[150]  Karl Henrik Johansson,et al.  Event-based broadcasting for multi-agent average consensus , 2013, Autom..

[151]  Michael Ian Shamos,et al.  Geometric intersection problems , 1976, 17th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (sfcs 1976).

[152]  F. Beyrich,et al.  Meteorological profiling of the lower troposphere using the research UAV "M 2 AV Carolo" , 2010 .

[153]  E. Feron,et al.  Robust hybrid control for autonomous vehicle motion planning , 2000, Proceedings of the 39th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (Cat. No.00CH37187).

[154]  João Borges de Sousa,et al.  Mission planning and specification in the Neptus framework , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..