This paper presents an approach to mutual collision avoidance based on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) with time-dependent Reciprocal Velocity Constraints (RVCs). Unlike most existing methods, the proposed approach relies solely on observable information about other robots, eliminating the need for excessive communication. The computationally efficient algorithm for computing RVCs, together with the direct integration of these constraints into the NMPC problem formulation at the controller level, allows the whole pipeline to run at 100 Hz. This high processing rate, combined with modeled nonlinear dynamics of the controlled Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), is a key feature that facilitates the use of the proposed approach for agile UAV flight. The proposed approach was evaluated through extensive simulations emulating real-world conditions in scenarios involving up to 10 UAVs and velocities of up to 25 m/s, and in real-world experiments with accelerations up to 30 m/s2. Comparison with the state of the art shows 31% improvement in terms of flight time reduction in challenging scenarios, while maintaining a collision-free navigation in all trials.
Trajectory tracking performance of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) degrades during an agile high-speed flight due to the depletion of the battery and subsequent loss of maximum available thrust. In applications such as drone racing, this leads to a failure to complete the race due to possible collisions with obstacles. In this paper, we present a novel method for integrating battery and propulsion system models into a Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller (NMPC) framework to enable real-time prediction of the voltage, current, power, and maximum available thrust of the platform. Our proposed approach achieves lower trajectory tracking error as a result of its real-time thrust awareness, and with the help of trajectory replanning, it allows the UAV to fly in time-optimal regime throughout the mission. The accuracy of this proposed model was verified in real-world flight experiments, while the effectiveness of the replanning algorithm was evaluated in simulation. By the end of the battery capacity, compared to an unaware controller, our novel controller achieved a 25% reduction in mean position error without replanning, and an 88 % reduction with replanning.
Parakh M. Gupta, Matej Mihulka, Matej Novosad +2
Multi-robot Systems Group, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
Flying a quadrotor through a cluttered environment requires not only planning a collision-free reference trajectory based on perceived obstacles, but the reference also needs to be dynamically feasible and within the actuation limits of the vehicle, so that the controller can track it precisely. Existing methods either optimize a smooth polynomial inside a convex corridor, which limits agility, or treat obstacles as soft costs traded against tracking performance. We propose a Nonlinear Model Predictive Planning (NMPP) that imposes perceived obstacles as hard geometric constraints and hands a full-state reference to an obstacle-blind SE(3) controller. Our planner achieves a 58-67 % lower position RMSE than a linear Model Predictive Control trajectory planner and a 41-70 % lower RMSE than a polynomial trajectory planner. It also completes all forest flights with up to 9.5 m/s speed without collisions, and achieves 86 % flight success rate under a more aggressive speed profile where a state-of-the-art planner has only 26 % success rate. The real-world deployment showed reliable execution flying up to 5.5 m/s in an unknown cluttered environment.
Ondřej Procházka, Juraj Pauko, Robert Pěnička +1
Multi-robot Systems Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
This paper presents a new robust integrated planning and control (IPC) strategy for multirotor uncrewed aerial vehicles. We propose a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) formulation that embeds control barrier functions (CBFs) as exponential penalties, improving feasibility while ensuring smooth obstacle avoidance under tight input bounds. The penalty weights provide a practical tuning knob to trade off tracking accuracy against avoidance aggressiveness. We enhance the system robustness by employing a high-gain disturbance observer (HGDO) to estimate and compensate for external disturbances. We also incorporate a Kalman filter (KF) for computationally efficient, real-time prediction of obstacle motion, enabling avoidance of moving obstacles. Comparative studies against both conventional NMPC and NMPC with hard CBF constraints, validated in Gazebo and hardware experiments, demonstrate superior feasibility, safety, and robustness. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first hardware-validated NMPC-CBF IPC framework, offering a practical step toward safe quadrotor deployment in dynamic environments.
Zeinab Shayan, Mohammadreza Izadi, Reza Faieghi
Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada.