(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011)
Christmann, Hans Claus; Johnson, Eric N.
This paper presents the usage of visibility based guidance cues in order
to find waypoints useful for maintaining communication in a multi UAV (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle), single operator system. Based upon the overlay of visibility
graphs (for radio communication) and Voronoi diagrams (for maximum clearance
motion paths), the paper presents simulations of three staged methods, allowing the
computation of waypoints suitable for establishing a potential multi-hop connection between an operator and a primary UAV in an urban or otherwise cluttered
environment. The methods present generic solutions for 2D planes, ensuring applicability for indoor, outdoor, and other structured environments through a potential
interconnection of several non-coplanar 2D planes. The presented methods increase
in computational complexity as they are capable of handling more complex scenarios. However, the presented methods are overall still deemed computationally
acceptable and present themselves as good candidates for onboard implementation
on vehicles with limited computational power.