Session 6: Motion Planning Strategies 

In this talk, we discuss the notions of velocity cones (that is, cones in the velocity space) for  performing a range of motion planning operations for autonomous vehicles.  We discuss the use of velocity cones for performing collision avoidance in dynamic environments, for enabling a UAV to perform precision maneuvers through a moving orifice, for enabling a group of UAVs to perform coordinated motions such as surveillance with an overlap of their sensing  footprints or agricultural spraying with an overlap of their actuation footprints, for enabling a swarm of UAVs carrying a net to perform coordinated maneuvers to intercept or surround an intruder swarm.  In all these applications, the shapes of the objects (which may be non-circular/non-spherical) are accounted for in the development of the velocity cones.  The use of velocity cones as a fundamental construct in motion planning operations is discussed.

Autonomous systems are used extensively in several civilian, commercial and military applications due to their utility and growing affordability. In many of these usages, the primary challenge involves determining the feasible path to traverse as they pass through a series of designated points. Multiple constraints should be considered during this path-planning process, including factors like travel time, the total distance to be covered, ensuring a smooth path with specific curvature limits, and maintaining a safe distance from surrounding objects. The capability of UAVs to execute these paths is pivotal in enhancing their effectiveness. Additionally, the characteristics of the path, such as a sudden and significant change in the curvature, can adversely affect the performance of UAVs. In this talk several methods will be presented for waypoint following problems both in 2D plane and 3D space to make the autonomous guidance system a more promising candidate in a wide range of surveillance, agricultural and target tracking applications.

Motion planning and Guidance form an essential component in any application involving autonomous or semi-autonomous systems. In this talk, first, a state-of-the-art sampling-based motion planning strategy would be discussed. Subsequently, fundamental results on some variants of classical Proportional Navigation Guidance followed by some application-specific Guidance results would be presented.