Collision Avoidance of Two Autonomous Quadcopters

TL;DR

This paper introduces a game-theoretic collision avoidance system for two autonomous quadcopters, using fictitious play to coordinate altitude choices and prevent mid-air collisions, demonstrated through real-world experiments.

Contribution

It proposes a novel game-theoretic coordination mechanism for UAV collision avoidance using fictitious play, validated with quadcopter flight tests.

Findings

Successful collision avoidance in real quadcopter flights

Effective coordination mechanism based on fictitious play

Potential for scalable UAV collision management

Abstract

Traffic collision avoidance systems (TCAS) are used in order to avoid incidences of mid-air collisions between aircraft. We present a game-theoretic approach of a TCAS designed for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A variant of the canonical example of game-theoretic learning, fictitious play, is used as a coordination mechanism between the UAVs, that should choose between the alternative altitudes to fly and avoid collision. We present the implementation results of the proposed coordination mechanism in two quad-copters flying in opposite directions.