Multiple Lane UAV Corridor Planning for Urban Mobility System Applications

The aim of this work is to achieve smooth multiple parallel paths (lanes) confined within a bounded volume (corridor) through controlled airspace in urban scenarios. The problem is formulated as two subproblems: cross-section planning and corridor planning. The corridor cross-section is optimized for minimizing the corridor width for the required number of parallel paths while taking into account the downwash effects. Corridor planning utilizes a modified $A^{\ast}$ algorithm for waypoint generation in conjunction with a logistic curve based path for smoothly connecting these waypoints while accounting for curvature limits of individual paths. Waypoint heading angles are optimized to find minimum length corridor. The work provides an optimal solution of corridor planning with the capability of accommodating multiple UAVs simultaneously.