Collision avoidance control of multiple UAVs using collision cones and control barrier functions

Abstract

This paper focuses on the collision avoidance of multiple UAVs using collision cones (CCs) and control barrier functions (CBFs). Each UAV is separately controlled toward a given goal while avoiding collision with other UAVs, which are considered moving obstacles. We first propose a new collision avoidance control method based on CCs and CBFs without numerical optimization. This method significantly lowers computational costs compared to existing optimization-based approaches. In addition, we propose a new optimization-based method using CCs and CBFs. A key feature of the proposed method is that the desired control input used in numerical optimization is modified based on CCs and CBFs, in contrast to existing methods that use a desired control input designed without considering obstacles. We evaluate and compare the effectiveness of the proposed methods through extensive simulations. Experimental results using real quadrotors are also shown.