A perception-aware NMPC for collision avoidance and control of a multi-rotor UAV with visual localization constraints

Abstract

ractical platform that can be used for automatization of many real-world tasks. Special interest at present time is shown to solutions requiring collaboration of multiple agents, which require precise relative localization and reactive control to avoid collisions, while performing high-level mission tasks (e.g., autonomous inspection, human-robot interaction) whenUAVs are moving in close proximity with each other. In this work, a perception-aware NMPC (Nonlinear Model Predictive Control) scheme for controlling a multi-rotor UAV while avoiding dynamic obstacles and maintaining visibility coverage of a target is set up. The proposed approach is meant to directly produce the rotor-level (torque) inputs of the platform motors, hence it does not require an intermediate unconstrained controller to work. It is also meant to be generic, by covering standard coplanar quad-rotors as well as tilted-propeller multi-rotors. A generic onboard sensor is taken into account to retrieve the 3-D pose of the target. The model can be applied to various types of sensors equipped on aerial vehicles, such as monocular cameras or laser scanners. Further, real actuator limitations are modelled to simulate platforms physical constraints. Numerical simulations in MATLAB extensively test the proposed framework showing its validity and effectiveness.