High volume drone collision avoidance with cooperative formation flying

Tomkinson, Christopher (2020) High volume drone collision avoidance with cooperative formation flying. [USQ Project]


Abstract

Drones have rapidly gained adoption in recent years. Due to their utility in transportation and surveillance, drones will certainly be a part of many fields and commercial projects. This however has left controlling bodies battling to create a regulatory framework, which allows this innovative technology to be used in a public setting, while maintaining a high degree of safety for the public and infrastructure.

This study has researched an algorithm for high volume drone collision avoidance with cooperative formation flying. It also has investigated whether this collision avoidance system could be implemented on low cost hardware.

This research firstly simulated drone collision avoidance algorithms and ultimately identified what is the best algorithm for collision avoidance. It found that the best algorithm was one which mimics traditional aircraft collision avoidance systems through height manipulation, with more complex algorithms such as pseudo magnetic repulsion algorithm suffering from performance issues as drone volumes increase.

Incorporation of cooperative flying by linking drones on common bearings did provide a more efficient use of air space, and through simulated testing did allow for an increase in drone density.

This research investigated a physical hardware implementation of the collision avoidance system and while not able to achieve an autonomous setup, has demonstrated that collision avoidance could be achieved using inexpensive hardware. This study has achieved its key outcome of providing a basis for a collision avoidance system, which commercial drone operators could incorporate with further testing, enabling them to provide additional confidence to regulators in allowing beyond line of sight operations.


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Item Type: USQ Project
Item Status: Live Archive
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (1 Jul 2013 - 31 Dec 2021)
Supervisors: Hills, Catherine
Qualification: Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Electrical and Electronic)
Date Deposited: 17 Aug 2021 00:09
Last Modified: 26 Jun 2023 04:52
URI: https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/43027

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