Decentralized deconfliction algorithms for unicycle UAVs

This paper provides an approach for the collision avoidance problem for a group of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) modeled as unicycles.We use a combination of navigation and swirling functions to direct the vehicles along the planned trajectories while avoiding inter-vehicle collisions. The main contribution is to propose deconfliction algorithms for unicycle vehicles that more closely capture the dynamics of constant speed UAVs as opposed to double integrator models. Moreover, we consider the issue of aircraft turn-rate constraints and proceed to explore the selection of key algorithmic parameters in order to minimize undesirable trajectories and overshoot induced by the avoidance algorithm. The avoidance and convergence analysis of the proposed algorithm is performed for two UAV deconfliction and simulation results are provided to support the viability of the proposed framework for more general mission scenarios.