A Harmonic Potential Approach for Simultaneous Planning and Control of a Generic UAV Platform
Simultaneous planning and control of a large variety of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is tackled using the harmonic potential field (HPF) approach. A dense reference velocity field generated from the gradient of an HPF is used to regulate the velocity of the UAV concerned in a manner that would propel the UAV to a target point while enforcing the constraints on behavior that were a priori encoded in the reference field. The regulation process is carried-out using a novel and simple concept called the: virtual velocity attractor (VVA). The combined effect of the HPF gradient and the VVA is found able to yield an efficient, easy to implement, well-behaved and provably-correct context-sensitive control action that suits a wide variety of UAVs. The approach is developed and basic proofs of correctness are provided along with simulation results.
harmonic potential harmonic potential field joint planning and control navigation control autonomous uavs uav joint planning and control