Wind Dynamics and Homotopy Path Planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Trajectory Optimisation
Y.Y. Chan, Kam K.H. Ng, Chun‐Ho Liu, K. K. Hon · 2024
The onboard battery energy limits the flight time of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) application. In order to optimise the energy efficiency of UAV, we propose a model to integrate the energy consumption and wind-dynamics UAV trajectory optimisation for a given mission. Achieving the global optimum is challenging as the wind dynamics in real life is highly non-linear in nature that leads to local optima. Furthermore, the optimised trajectory is often constrained by its specific homotopy class. In this research, a two-stage approach is proposed to discover the least energy cost and obstacle-free path. The first stage employs path search techniques augmented with penalty cost method to generate a set of topological distinct paths. The second stage optimises each candidate trajectory using an improved timed elastic band (TEB) algorithm with the consideration of wind-dynamics. The solution space could be divided into different homotopy classes for exploration and the optimal trajectory can be selected among the candidates. Numerical simulation has been conducted in ROS and Gazebo simulation platform using geographic information system (GIS) data and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based simulations. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is effective to achieve the homotopic path planning and generate the optimal energy-efficient trajectories.