LP-based path planning for target pursuit and obstacle avoidance in 3D relative coordinates

A linear programming (LP) based approach is proposed for the trajectory generation in three dimensional space in which a vehicle is requested to pursue a moving target and avoid static or dynamic obstacles simultaneously. The target pursuit and obstacle avoidance (TPOA) are modeled in relative velocity coordinates, respectively, with linear constraints, according to the LP framework. Two objective functions are defined in terms of relative distance and relative velocity for the optimization. Other constraints, such as those from kinematics, dynamics, and sensor range are fully considered in the proposed method. Simulations are carried out to validate the method.