UAV-Assisted Human Navigation Strategy in Clutter Via Tethered Physical Interaction: A Dynamic Safety Virtual Tube Generation Approach
Penghui Yang, Zhichen Li, Huaicheng Yan, Bin Lan, Kai Rao, Yunkai Lv · IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics · 2025
In this article, an innovative autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV)-assisted autonomous navigation strategy is proposed for visually impaired individuals. Taking advantages of tethered physical interaction, both autonomy and safety of interaction system’s motion are taken into consideration. First, considering virtual tube generation, an improved front-end path planning algorithm is utilized, which allows guidance-required path search, while evaluates safe and effective guidance path. At back-end, an optimization-based generator curve generation method is developed to determine tube radius. Second, a rolling horizon planning mechanism is introduced to generate a dynamic and safe virtual tube. Third, by coupled system model of tethered physical interaction, an adaptive trajectory tracking control scheme is put forward, and thus not only the stable tracking performance is achieved, but also the UAV’s flight motion is maintained within safety zone for the virtual tube. Finally, the simulation results are provided to reveal that the proposed dynamic safety virtual tube generation method is more desirable for motion planning. Moreover, the effectiveness of the given autonomous navigation approach is validated by some experiments in complex scenarios.