The speed assignment problem for conflict resolution in aerial robotics

This paper presents an efficient conflict resolution method for multiple aerial vehicles based on speed planning. The problem is assigning a speed profile to each aerial vehicle in real time such that the separation between them is greater than a minimum safety value and the total deviation from the initial planned trajectories is minimized. Also, the arrival time of each aerial vehicle at the end waypoint of the trajectory is taken into account to solve the conflicts. The proposed method involves the use of appropriate airspace discretization. The method consists of two steps: a search tree step, which finds if it exists a solution; and an optimization step by solving a QP-problem, which minimizes a cost function. The paper also presents simulations for several scenarios and experiments that have been carried out in the multivehicle aerial testbed of the Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (CATEC).