Supplementary Material for:

Deliberative Control-Aware Motion Planning for Kinematic-Constrained UAVs in a Dynamic Environment

This repository contains supplementary materials related to the paper titled "Deliberative Control-Aware Motion Planning for Kinematic-Constrained UAVs in a Dynamic Environment".

Paper Abstract

This paper introduces a motion planning approach for navigating in a dynamic environment. The path is represented using a Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) to ensure smoothness, curvature continuity, and proper orientation by adjusting its parameters. A Differential Evolution algorithm optimizes the curve parameters and traversal speed at each re-planning interval, taking into account speed limits, maximum curvature, and obstacles in the environment. A constraint based on the Velocity Obstacle (VO) ensures collision-free motion, considering bounds provided by lower-level controllers. The feasibility of the approach is validated through simulations and real-world experiments with the Crazyflie 2.1 micro quadcopter.

Contents

1. Figures

The folder figures/ contains high-resolution images used in the paper. These figures include:

• Fig.1: Worst conservative avoidance scenario
• Fig.2: Comparison between our motion planner with VO constraint and without VO constraint, using a naive projection of the obstacles and checking collision along the trajectory.
• Fig.3: Snapshots of the simulated robot's motion in an environment with 50 obstacles
• Fig.4: Speed profiles of the UAV over time.
• Fig.5: Snapshots of the recorded robot's motion in an environment with five virtual obstacles

2. Videos

The folder videos/ contains the following video demonstrations:

• Simulation Experiments: These videos illustrate the UAV's path planning and navigation behavior in dynamic environments during simulation. The videos demonstrate how the Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) is optimized for smoothness, curvature continuity, and obstacle avoidance.

  • simulation_experiment_1.mp4
  • simulation_experiment_2.mp4

• Real-World Experiments: These videos showcase the Crazyflie 2.1 micro quadcopter navigating in real-world environments based on the proposed motion planning algorithm. The videos highlight the quadcopter's ability to avoid obstacles and dynamically re-plan its trajectory in real-time.

  • real_robot_experiment_1.mp4
  • real_robot_experiment_2.mp4

How to Cite

If you use any material from this repository, please cite the paper:

Freitas, Elias J. R. et al. Deliberative control-aware motion planning for kinematic-constrained UAVs in a dynamic environment. In: 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE, 2025.

Contact

For any questions or further information, please contact [Elias J R Freitas] at [Email].

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