Autonomous Non-Communicative Navigation Assistance to the Ground Vehicle by an Aerial Vehicle

Vision-based UAV-AGV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Autonomous Ground Vehicle) systems are prominent for executing tasks in GPS (Global Positioning System)-inaccessible areas. One of the roles of the UAV is guiding the navigation of the AGV. Reactive/mapless navigation assistance to an AGV from a UAV is well known and suitable for computationally less powerful systems. This method requires communication between both agents during navigation as per state of the art. However, communication delays and failures will cause failures in tasks, especially during outdoor missions. In the present work, we propose a mapless technique for the navigation of AGVs assisted by UAVs without communication of obstacles to AGVs. The considered scenario is that the AGV is undergoing sensor and communication module failure and is completely dependent on the UAV for its safe navigation. The goal of the UAV is to take AGV to the destination while guiding it to avoid obstacles. We exploit the autonomous tracking task between the UAV and AGV for obstacle avoidance. In particular, AGV tracking the motion of the UAV is exploited for the navigation of the AGV. YOLO (You Only Look Once) v8 has been implemented to detect the drone by AGV camera. The sliding mode control method is implemented for the tracking motion of the AGV and obstacle avoidance control. The job of the UAV is to localize obstacles in the image plane and guide the AGV without communicating with it. Experimental results are presented to validate the proposed method. This proves to be a significant technique for the safe navigation of the AGV when it is non-communicating and experiencing sudden sensor failure.