Flow-Based Path Planning for Multiple Homogenous UAVs for Outdoor Formation-Flying

TL;DR

This paper introduces a flow network-based method for collision-free path planning in multi-UAV formation flying, demonstrating its effectiveness through simulations and real-world experiments with up to 64 UAVs.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel flow network approach for multi-UAV path planning that ensures collision avoidance and is validated through extensive simulations and practical tests.

Findings

Successfully planned collision-free paths for up to 64 UAVs in simulation.

Practical experiments confirmed the method's safety and feasibility with 3 quadcopters.

The approach effectively integrates flow network algorithms with UAV path planning.

Abstract

Collision-free path planning is the most crucial component in multi-UAV formation-flying (MFF). We use unlabeled homogenous quadcopters (UAVs) to demonstrate the use of a flow network to create complete (inter-UAV) collision-free paths. This procedure has three main parts: 1) Creating a flow network graph from physical GPS coordinates, 2) Finding a path of minimum cost (least distance) using any graph-based path-finding algorithm, and 3) Implementing the Ford-Fulkerson Method to find the paths with the maximum flow (no collision). Simulations of up to 64 UAVs were conducted for various formations, followed by a practical experiment with 3 quadcopters for testing physical plausibility and feasibility. The results of these tests show the efficacy of this method's ability to produce safe, collision-free paths.