Real-time path generation for multicopters in environments with obstacles

The article proposes a solution allowing a multicopter to generate and follow a path while taking into account the obstacles in the environment. Specifically, we introduce a method for path definition that describes a curve as the intersection of two surfaces. Then, the article proposes a computationally efficient strategy allowing to modify either surface, and hence the resulting path, to take into account the presence of obstacles perceived in real-time. The algorithm has been implemented and embedded in a software package to control the flight of a fully autonomous AscTec Firefly hexacopter with two cameras and onboard processing capabilities.