Obstacle Detection and Avoidance System for Small UAVs using a LiDAR

This paper presents the obstacle detection and avoidance system for a multicopter UAV. A Velodyne VLP-16 LiDAR is used for obstacle detection. The LiDAR generates a 360° view of the environment around the multicopter, enabling the multicopter to navigate around any obstacles in any direction. An Intel NUC processor is used as an onboard flight computer, which processes the LiDAR data and obstacle avoidance algorithm. The flight computer communicates with the flight controller (Pixhawk2 autopilot) using a Python library called DroneKit to send the obstacle avoidance commands. This results in the multicopter safely navigating around obstacles autonomously. Simulation and ground test results are shown.