Dynamic UAV Path Planning for Multitarget Tracking Professor Edwin K. P. Chong, Colorado State University

1. UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN Dynamic UAV Path Planning for Multitarget Tracking Professor Edwin K. P. Chong, Colorado State University CENTRE OF VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY Abstract We describe a path-planning method to guide unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for tracking multiple ground targets based on the theory of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). We demonstrate the power and flexibility of the POMDP framework by showing that a variety of features of interest are easy to incorporate into the framework by plugging in the appropriate models. Specifically, in this talk we show how to incorporate the following features by appropriately formulating the POMDP action space, transition law, and objective function: 1) Control UAVs with both forward acceleration and bank angle subject to constraints; 2) Account for the effect of wind disturbance on UAVs; 3) Avoid collisions between UAVs and obstacles; and 4) Mitigate track swaps. Venue: 10am – 12pm, 4th Jun 2012, Monday 6th Floor, SA Block, Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Brief Bio: Professor Edwin K. P. Chong was born in Kuala Lumpur. He received the B.E.(Hons.) degree with First Class Honors from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, in 1987; and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in 1989 and 1991, respectively, both from Princeton University, where he held an IBM Fellowship. He joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University in 1991, where he was named a University Faculty Scholar in 1999. Since August 2001, he has been a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Professor of Mathematics at Colorado State University. His current interests are in stochastic models and optimization methods. He coauthored the recent best-selling book, An Introduction to Optimization, 3rd Edition, Wiley-Interscience, 2008. He is an inaugural Senior Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, and is also on the editorial boards of Computer Networks and the Journal of Control Science and Engineering. Professor Chong is a Fellow of the IEEE, and served as an IEEE Control Systems Society Distinguished Lecturer. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 1995 and the ASEE Frederick Emmons Terman Award in 1998. He was a co-recipient of the 2004 Best Paper Award for a paper in the journal Computer Networks. In 2010 he received the IEEE Distinguished Member Award from the Control Systems Society.