Live-fly experimentation for pigeon-inspired obstacle avoidance of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles

In this paper, we applied a pigeon-inspired obstacle-avoidance model to the flight of quadrotor UAVs through environments with obstacles. Pigeons bias their flight direction by considering the largest gap and minimum required steering. Owing to the similarities between pigeon flocks and UAV swarms in terms of mission requirements, the pigeon-inspired obstacle-avoidance model is used to control a UAV swarm so that it can fly through a complex environment with multiple obstacles. The simulation and flight results illustrate the viability and superiority of pigeon-inspired obstacle avoidance for quadrotor UAVs.