Obstacle avoidance approaches for quadrotor UAV based on backstepping technique

Due to their distinct advantages and great potential, quadrotor UAV has attracted more and more attentions. The ability to avoid obstacles automatically is the essential criterion of the intellectualization of UAV. In order to decouple the dynamic system and realize desired flight, backstepping technique is employed in this paper, which has great performance in terms of transient and steady response. On this basis, the paper also proposes two kinds of obstacle avoidance approaches, Safety-ball model and Mass point model. In the process of obstacle avoidance, the stable flight is realized from start point to aiming point which was calculated by different obstacle avoidance approaches. And then, it will fly to the next aiming point until it reaches the target point, where the vehicle would keep hovering. Finally, comparison of safety-ball model with mass point model in 3D simulation is carried out briefly to evaluate respective performance.