(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-08)
Christmann, Hans Claus; Johnson, Eric N.
The presented work introduces a graph based approach to model urban (or otherwise
cluttered) environments for UAS utilization beyond line-of-sight as well as out of direct
R/F range of the operator's control station. Making the assumption that some a priori data
of the environment is available, the proposed method uses a classification of obstacles with
respect to their impact on UAV motion and R/F communication and generates continuously
updateable graphs usable to compute traverseable paths for UAVs while maintaining R/F
communication.
Using a simulated urban scenario this work shows that the proposed modeling method
allows to find reachable loiter or hover areas for UAVs in order to establish a multi-hop
R/F communication link between a primary UAV and its remote operator by utilizing an
overlay of motion (Voronoi based) and R/F (visibility based) specific mapping methods.