Spatially deconflicted path generation for multiple UAVs in a bounded airspace

This paper presents a preliminary framework for generating spatially deconflicted paths for multiple UAVs using Bezier curves. The critical issue addressed is that of guaranteeing that all the paths lie inside a pre-defined airspace volume. Its is shown that Bezier curves reperesent a natural tool for meeting this requirement. The paper reviews the essential properties of the Bezier curves that are used to guarantee spatial deconfliction between the UAV paths as well as airspace volume contsraints. The generated curves are not only non-overlapping but separated by a minimum distance chosen prior to flight. It is then shown that the path generation problem can be formulated as a constrained optimization problem over a finite optimization set and solved using standard MATLAB optimization tools. Simulation results are presented along with its discussion. The paper includes an analysis of numerical solutions obtained as well as discussion of future work.