Study of Motion Planning of Quadcopter Under Uncertain Environment

The consequences of drone movement state (motion planning), such as position, orientation and speed, during the travelling mission to the destination are crucial factors in its safety, resource consumption and task accomplishment. The unmanned aerial vehicle can be obliged in an unknown environment to follow an unplanned trajectory when faced with obstacles. Hence, this paper suggested two motion planning approaches for quadcopter navigation implemented in two scenarios under uncertain environments with incomplete information about the investigated environment. In the first scenario, the quadcopter’s motion will be controlled using the PID control algorithm to accomplish multiple goals in an environment artificially created to be full of obstacles. The pure pursuit control algorithm, employed for the same purpose in the same uncertain environment, is included in the second scenario. In both cases, the quadcopter will navigate and avoid obstacles using a vector field histogram plus algorithm and a LiDAR sensor in an obstacle avoidance system. We will compare the two tests regarding the time and distance required to evaluate the suggested scenarios’ performance in different environmental conditions and show the advantages of utilising such strategies. MATLAB Simulink was used to conduct the simulation.