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A framework for autonomous waypoint planning, trajectory generation through waypoints, and trajectory tracking for multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is proposed in this work. Safe and effective operations of these UAVs is a problem that demands obstacle avoidance strategies and advanced trajectory planning and control schemes for stability and energy efficiency. To address this problem, a two-level optimization strategy is used for trajectory generation, then the trajectory is tracked in a stable manner. The framework given here consists of the following components: (a) a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based algorithm for optimal waypoint planning while minimizing control energy and avoiding obstacles in a given environment; (b) an optimal, smooth trajectory generation algorithm through waypoints, that minimizes a combinaton of velocity, acceleration, jerk and snap; and (c) a stable tracking control law that determines a control thrust force for an UAV to track the generated trajectory.
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Autonomous UAV with Learned Trajectory Generation and Control
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is a rapidly growing field with tremendous opportunities for research and applications. To achieve true autonomy for UAVs in the absence of remote control, external navigation aids like global navigation satellite systems and radar systems, a minimum energy trajectory planning that considers obstacle avoidance and stability control will be the key. Although this can be formulated as a constrained optimization problem, due to the complicated non-linear relationships between UAV trajectory and thrust control, it is almost impossible to be solved analytically. While deep reinforcement learning is known for its ability to provide model free optimization for complex system through learning, its state space, actions and reward functions must be designed carefully. This paper presents our vision of different layers of autonomy in a UAV system, and our effort in generating and tracking the trajectory both using deep reinforcement learning (DRL). The experimental results show that compared to conventional approaches, the learned trajectory will need 20% less control thrust and 18% less time to reach the target. Furthermore, using the control policy learning by DRL, the UAV will achieve 58.14% less position error and 21.77% less system power.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1739748
- PAR ID:
- 10195593
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Systems (SIPS)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 115 to 120
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/SiPS47522.2019.9020508
