On-Line Path Generation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using B-Spline Path Templates
Dongwon Jung, Panagiotis Tsiotras · Journal of Guidance Control and Dynamics · 2013
The problem of generating a smooth reference path, given a finite family of discrete, locally optimal paths, is investigated. A finite discretization of the environment results in a sequence of obstacle-free square cells. The generated path must lie inside the channel generated by these obstacle-free cells, while minimizing certain performance criteria. Two constrained optimization problems are formulated and solved subject to the given geometric (linear) constraints and boundary conditions in order to generate a library of B-spline path templates offline. These templates are recalled during implementation and are merged together on the fly in order to construct a smooth and feasible reference path to be followed by a closed-loop tracking controller. Combined with a discrete path planner, the proposed algorithm provides a complete solution to the obstacle-free path-generation problem for an unmanned aerial vehicle in a computationally efficient manner, which is suitable for real-time implementation.