Histo-Planner: A Real-time Local Planner for MAVs Teleoperation based on Histogram of Obstacle Distribution

TL;DR

Histo-Planner is a real-time local obstacle avoidance system for MAV teleoperation that uses obstacle histograms and adaptive planning modes without requiring a global map, validated through simulations and indoor tests.

Contribution

It introduces a novel real-time local planner based on obstacle histograms that operates without global maps, suitable for cluttered environments with limited computational resources.

Findings

Effective obstacle avoidance demonstrated in simulations.

Successful indoor teleoperation experiments.

Benchmark results show competitive performance.

Abstract

This paper concerns real-time obstacle avoidance for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). Motivated by teleoperation applications in cluttered environments with limited computational power, we propose a local planner that does not require the knowledge or construction of a global map of the obstacles. The proposed solution consists of a real-time trajectory planning algorithm that relies on the histogram of obstacle distribution and a planner manager that triggers different planning modes depending on obstacles location around the MAV. The proposed solution is validated, for a teleoperation application, with both simulations and indoor experiments. Benchmark comparisons based on a designed simulation platform are also provided.