Path planning for unmanned vehicles with localization constraints

摘要

This article addresses a path planning problem for an unmanned vehicle in the presence of localization constraints. Landmarks are used for localizing the position of the vehicle at any time. The localization constraints require that at least two landmarks must be present in the sensing range of the vehicle at any time instant. This problem is formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) which aims to compute an optimal path for the vehicle and the optimal locations where landmarks must be placed. The facial structure of the polytope of feasible solutions to the MILP is then analyzed, and a branch-and-cut algorithm is developed to find an optimal solution. Extensive computational results that corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed approach are also presented.