Model Predictive Control for UAV Geofencing

A geofence is a virtual perimeter representing the limits of a real-world operating area. The development of a control policy allowing to guarantee the safety of the Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles' (UAVs) users and stakeholders represents an important industrial world problem, yet studied in depth by the international scientific research community. In this paper, a geofencing system for UAVs based on the Model Predictive Control (MPC) paradigm is proposed. MPC permits to optimally drive dynamical systems explicitly imposing constraints on input and output by the prediction of the future evolution of the controlled plant. In this paper, an MPC policy is proposed to impose the geofencing area of a pre-compensated multi-rotor UAV. The proposed approach considers recomputing iteratively the controlled UAV speed constraints with respect to a prescribed maximum vehicle deceleration, in order to correctly impose the limits on vehicle speed and to stop the UAV on the borders of the prescribed geofence operating area. The proposed algorithm has been verified in simulation tests controlling a pre-compensated multi-rotor vehicle in a considered control scenario.