3D navigation and collision avoidance for a non-holonomic vehicle

This paper expands the methodology of Navigation Functions for the control of a spherical aircraft-like 3-dimensional nonholonomic vehicle. A Dipolar Navigation Function is used to generate a feasible, non-holonomic trajectory for the vehicle that leads from an arbitrary position to the target, in combination with a discontinuous feedback control law that steers the vehicle. The motion model used incorporates the nonholonomic constraints imposed on an aircraft, preventing any movement along the lateral or perpendicular axis, as well as preventing high yaw rotation rates. The control strategy provides guaranteed collision avoidance and convergence, and is supported by non-trivial simulation results.