9. Geodetic

In the previous sections, we focused on the modeling and orientation control of UAVs moving in space. We emphasized the geometrical aspect, resulting in simple, generic and elegant modeling. This has greatly simplified controller synthesis. In this section, we want to show another aspect of geometry in UAV control: geodesics.

A drone often travels in a cluttered environment, with obstacles to detect and avoid. In this case, the aim is to find an optimal path to a goal. To find such paths, there is a set of tools that can be found in Lavalle's book and Latombe's