Plotting of trajectory path for remotely piloted aircraft system in an indoor and outdoor environment via simulation

Abstract

Interest and research of the usage of Unmanned-Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been on the rise over the recent years. Flight trajectory and path planning are hugely dependent on the path planner’s experience and type of environment.

However, there are various limitations as the coordinates given are of a rough measure and it is only through rigorous testing and experimentation can the proper coordinates be obtained. Hence, this project was started to attempt to design and simplify flight trajectory so that there is a visual simulation for planners to use.

The scope of this report consists of an overview of the program Blender, as well as Mission Planner to show how the programs assist in flight in both an indoor and outdoor environment respectively. There will be an in-depth discussion about how the waypoints were assigned to the various UAVs using Blender. The process of extracting coordinates and testing against real time will be discussed upon as well. Mission Planner was also shown with a special macro that allows conversion of units from Blender, which will be talked upon in the report.

Other aspects of the project that are touched upon in this report include the evaluation of the programs used and improvements that could be further enhanced upon.