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A method for autonomous collision-free navigation of a quadrotor UAV in unknown tunnel-like environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2021

Taha Elmokadem Open the ORCID record for Taha Elmokadem [Opens in a new window]  and
Andrey V. Savkin
Taha Elmokadem*
Affiliation:
School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Andrey V. Savkin
Affiliation:
School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: t.elmokadem@unsw.edu.au
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Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become essential tools for exploring, mapping and inspection of unknown three-dimensional (3D) tunnel-like environments which is a very challenging problem. A computationally light navigation algorithm is developed in this paper for quadrotor UAVs to autonomously guide the vehicle through such environments. It uses sensors observations to safely guide the UAV along the tunnel axis while avoiding collisions with its walls. The approach is evaluated using several computer simulations with realistic sensing models and practical implementation with a quadrotor UAV. The proposed method is also applicable to other UAV types and autonomous underwater vehicles.

Keywords

3D autonomous navigationquadrotor UAVscollision avoidanceflying robotsnavigation in unknown environmentsautonomous tunnel inspection

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , April 2022 , pp. 835 - 861
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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