Built in Collision Avoidance for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)

Why Collision Avoidance?

1. Consider the Raven mission:– Battalion level tool– Reconnaissance missions– Patrol the perimeter of camps– Search of IEDs

2. Consider the price decrease– A full system (ground station+3 UAV+ spare)

started initially at about $320,000 -> $250,000 in 2005 -> $130,000 in 2009

In Near Future

• A battalion will have multiple UAS

• It is more convenient to plan the missions for each Raven INDEPENDENTLY

• Given the weight of UAVs, it must be sensitive to wind (course will deviate from planned mission) need for real time adjustments

Constraints on UAS

• Upper limit on the altitude• Lower limit on the altitude (stealth or

regulations)• Speed within a limited range

• Limited communications range for low end UAS

Auburn Objective (2008)

• “fly safely and efficiently, in a limited space, a fleet of autonomous UAVs on a cooperative mission with terrestrial vehicles. ”

• Challenging Constraints– UAVs must fly at constant speed– UAVs must fly at the same altitude

Completed Tasks Since August 2008

• Started with an amateur platform

• Summer 2010: Auburn adds a digital data link based on Zigbee – Multi hop mesh network (UAVs can be used

as relays/routers)– On fly waypoints updates

Completed Tasks Since August 2008

• Summer 2011:– Symbiotic software architecture– Three collision avoidance algorithms (different

families)

• Summer 2012– Five more collision avoidance

• Summer 2013– Ground station– Auto-configuration

Software Architecture

Achievements

• Ground station

• Fly up to 16 UAVs in 1 km x 1km with no near miss

• Fly up to 8 UAVs in a 500 m x 500 m wih no near miss

Ground Station (Screen)

Ground Station (Screen)

Ongoing Improvements

• Increase the communication range• Securing the link• Make UASfault tolerant to GPS

failures/jamming• Decrease failed launches (low end UAS)• Internet enabled (remote control/data

collection)

Questions?