未知环境中系留无人机编队的LiDAR-Based导航
LiDAR-Based Navigation of Tethered Drone Formations in an Unknown Environment
摘要：
研究了在未知环境下，由多架无人机组成的编队的导航问题。系绳从地面站向无人机提供电力，也作为通信链路。多个相互连接的无人机的存在提供了足够的自由度来在混乱的区域中导航。编队中的领导者无人机必须到达给定的兴趣点，而追随者必须相应地移动，避免干扰障碍物。挑战是环境的不确定性，未知形状和位置的障碍物，激光雷达（光探测和测距）传感器的使用，仅提供每个无人机周围环境的部分信息，以及系绳的存在，这些系绳不得与障碍物发生碰撞，并对无人机的移动方式构成额外的限制。为了解决这些问题，提出了一种基于数值优化的新型实时规划算法：通过凸规划以集中方式选择每个无人机的参考位置，其中使用LiDAR扫描来近似自由空间，并将无人机移向适当定义的中间目标，以便最终到达感兴趣点。该方法成功地测试了一个现实的系统模型的数值模拟。
英文摘要：
The problem of navigating a formation of interconnected tethered drones, named STEM (System of TEthered Multicopters), in an unknown environment is considered. The tethers feed electrical power from a ground station to the drones and also serve as communication links. The presence of more than one interconnected drone provides enough degrees of freedom to navigate in a cluttered area. The leader drone in the formation must reach a given point of interest, while the followers must move accordingly, avoiding interference with the obstacles. The challenges are the uncertainty in the environment, with obstacles of unknown shape and position, the use of LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensors, providing only partial information of the surroundings of each drone, and the presence of the tethers, which must not impact with the obstacles and pose additional constraints to how the drones can move. To cope with these problems, a novel real-time planning algorithm based on numerical optimization is proposed: the reference position of each drone is chosen in a centralized way via a convex program, where the LiDAR scans are used to approximate the free space and the drones are moved towards suitably defined intermediate goals in order to eventually reach the point of interest. The approach is successfully tested in numerical simulations with a realistic model of the system.
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