Student Name: Philip Salvaggio Student Number: s3486602

Title:

Researching and integrating advanced algorithms to improve collision avoidance and real time
awareness in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

Abstract:

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) have been consistently utilized in daily life for many purposes
such as, delivering packages, search and rescue missions and, weather and natural disaster
monitoring. Due to these significantly real time events improvement in collision avoidance needs to
be prioritized to avoid serious complications and interference. Therefore, research into new
algorithms and potentially modifying and improving existing algorithms or detection systems are
required.[1]

Introduction:

Improving UAVs will have significant impacts on a global scale of many lives, the core reason for this
is due to many tasks requiring some form of direct human intervention meaning a human needs to
be overseeing or be present in some form for a specific task to be executed, if the human element
can be completely eliminated then extra resources can be spared and re-concentrated and
reallocated to other tasks. An example is in the event of a search and rescue, a significantly higher
number of UAV’s can be sent out to do the task required whereas a manned drone would require
constant supervision hence the expenditure of an extra resource that would otherwise be utilized
performing an alternative task. Current detection systems just aren’t quite advanced enough to be
able to handle complete autonomous flight with the addition of very low risk of collision in a real
time environment. In a known environment it is simple for drones to create a pathway but when
surrounded by additional moving objects it becomes significantly difficult as current systems do not
currently handle the interference well enough to guarantee low-level risk of collision. In addition,
systems that are capable of executing low-level risk of collisions require heavily CPU intensive.[1, 2]

Aim:

To implement a new and improved detection system for collision avoidance in Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles.

Objectives:

 To examine and study current algorithms implemented in existing systems.

 To implement improvements where necessary depending on results of examination.
 To have an improved system that avoids collision with fast moving objects.

Research Gap:

An existing collision avoidance system has remarkable real-time collision avoidance however one
limitation has been observed concerning fast travel among densely cluttered obstacles due to the
computationally intensive system and hence heavy delay penalty it incurs. [3, 4]
Student Name: Philip Salvaggio Student Number: s3486602

Proposed Solution:

Improve on existing design by studying the algorithms currently used and implementing an
additional system focused solely on additional non-static objects to invoke a faster response time
separate to the system.

Research Question:

Did the improved algorithm and implementation improve response time to detect and avoid fast
moving objects in comparison to current and existing systems and is it less CPU intensive? How does
a separate system increase response time?

Study Design:

An additional system will need to be designed, written up, coded and implemented. This system will
be solely focused on non-static objects at defined high speeds and additional sensors will be
specifically allocated to detect such objects. Furthermore, the new system will require smooth
implementation to the UAV as to not interfere with the existing system. This will be on a separate
CPU to avoid computational intensity hence slowdown UAV response time. Once implemented
controlled tests will be conducted to observe the difference in response time and collision avoidance
succession between old system and newly implemented system.[5]

Experimental:

The basis of development will be studying existing collision avoidance algorithms, collision detection
algorithms and an adaptive algorithm. The collision avoidance algorithm will concentrate specifically
on manoeuvring around objects to avoid collision at a safe distance, collision detection algorithm
will concentrate on detecting objects within a specific radius of the UAV and the adaptive algorithm
will concentrate on creating an alternative pathway once collision avoidance has been executed.
Once these algorithms have been studied modifications and improvements will need to be made to
function for objects that move at an especially faster pace. Once this is done software simulations
will need to be run and completed, and if positive results are attained the next stage can commence.
Once this is accomplished integrating all these algorithms into one system will be the following
course of action and implementing it into the drone for real-time tests.[4]

Progress will be determined heavily by the outcome of simulations and when the outcome of
detecting rapid objects as the drone is in motion and avoids said objects is accomplished followed by
rerouting the pathway but still being able to achieve the intended destination in real-time. If
detection and avoidance is unsuccessful then a further study in their respective algorithms will be
required and potentially a hardware check, but if rerouting is a failure then further study into the
adaptive algorithm will be required only. [3, 4]
Student Name: Philip Salvaggio Student Number: s3486602

Data Analysis:

The results of the tests will be clear indicators of algorithms functioning appropriately or not, this
may be achieved by simulations but the true test will show when it is implemented into the UAV’s,
this data will be vital to understanding at what stage of progress the algorithms are really at and if
further research or work is necessary to reach the desired results.

Limitations:

If studying existing algorithms proves to be a success and only modifications are required using the
original algorithm, the limitation of time is minimized significantly and implementation into a system
and then the UAV can be easier attained, if the study of existing algorithms indicates that further
research and the creation of new unique algorithms are required then that could potentially take
months longer. At this point it would be too ambitious to think about integrating the algorithms into
systems and concentrate more on refining the algorithms to ensure they are efficient to be used for
implementation if more time in the future is granted.

Timeline:

Due to these tasks being heavily study and research based a timeline is difficult to determine.
Initially study and research of existing algorithms will take priority.
If studied algorithms can be utilized and improved next step will be running simulations.
If simulations show promising success, then implement algorithms into systems for UAV’s.
If simulations are unsatisfactory then further modification and research or new algorithms are
required.
If studied algorithms reveal new development of algorithm is required, then this will occupy a
considerable amount of the time.
This will heavily delay implementation of algorithms into systems and may completely disrupt
implementation of a system into the UAV.

References:

[1] J. Seo, Y. Kim, S. Kim, and A. Tsourdos, "Collision Avoidance Strategies for Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles in Formation Flight," (in English), Ieee T Aero Elec Sys, vol. 53, no. 6, pp.
2718-2734, Dec 2017, doi: 10.1109/Taes.2017.2714898.
[2] L. Geng, Y. F. Zhang, J. J. Wang, J. Y. H. Fuh, and S. H. Teo, "Mission Planning of
Autonomous UAVs for Urban Surveillance with Evolutionary Algorithms," (in English), Ieee
Int Conf Con Au, pp. 828-833, 2013. [Online]. Available: <Go to
ISI>://WOS:000324335200147.
[3] M. Radmanesh and M. Kumar, "Flight formation of UAVs in presence of moving obstacles
using fast-dynamic mixed integer linear programming," (in English), Aerosp Sci Technol, vol.
50, pp. 149-160, Mar 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2015.12.021.
[4] C. B. Luo, S. I. McClean, G. Parr, L. Teacy, and R. De Nardi, "UAV Position Estimation and
Collision Avoidance Using the Extended Kalman Filter," (in English), Ieee T Veh Technol,
vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 2749-2762, Jul 2013, doi: 10.1109/Tvt.2013.2243480.
[5] A. Mujumdar and R. Padhi, "Evolving Philosophies on Autonomous Obstacle/Collision
Avoidance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles," (in English), J Aeros Comp Inf Com, vol. 8, no. 2,
pp. 17-41, 2011, doi: 10.2514/1.49985.