Distributed 3D navigation and collision avoidance for nonholonomic aircraft-like vehicles

This paper builds upon previous work of the authors to present a methodology for the decentralized control of multiple 3-dimensional nonholonomic vehicles, utilizing Navigation Functions. The kinematic, non-holonomic, 3-dimensional model considered is chosen to resemble the motion of an aircraft by preventing any movement along the lateral or perpendicular axis, as well as avoiding high yaw rotation rates. The discontinuous feedback control law used is based on the artificial potential field generated by a Dipolar Navigation Function and steers the agents away from each other and towards their destinations, while respecting the non-holonomic constraints present. The performance of the proposed control strategy is formally guaranteed and verified by non-trivial simulation results.