Empowering UAV Autonomy Through Innovative Guidance Design

UAVs are desired to autonomously execute increasingly complex mission scenarios.  Handling a set of different tasks typically involves different guidance methods and associated sensory requirements. In this talk we will focus on the quest for finding a guidance architecture that offers greater diversity in UAV trajectories. Specifically, we investigate bifurcation-based guidance design wherein change in design parameter(s) changes the system topology. An example scenario is discussed wherein Pitchfork Bifurcation is used to generate a diverse set of target tracking and surveillance trajectories. Relying essentially on the same measurements, bifurcation-based guidance design paves way for greater autonomy without additional information or complexities.