3D path planning and stereo-based obstacle avoidance for rotorcraft UAVs

We present a synthesis of techniques for rotorcraft UAV navigation through unknown environments which may contain obstacles. D* Lite and probabilistic roadmaps are combined for path planning, together with stereo vision for obstacle detection and dynamic path updating. A 3D occupancy map is used to represent the environment, and is updated online using stereo data. The target application is autonomous helicopter-based structure inspections, which require the UAV to fly safely close to the structures it is inspecting. Results are presented from simulation and with real flight hardware mounted onboard a cable array robot, demonstrating successful navigation through unknown environments containing obstacles.