Dubins Paths for Resolving a Fixed-Wing UAV Traffic Jam

We formulate a hybrid control system for resolving a traffic jam encountered by a group of fixed-wing autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by coordinating their trajectories to maintain intervehicle separation throughout the remainder of the operation. The mechanism of communication between the UAVs required for this coordination is not specified or studied: the goal is to analyze first how separation can be assured in principle under the restrictions on altitude set by the Federal Aviation Administration. In the intermediate phases of the resolution, the control system uses closed trajectories that are Dubins paths and that bound convex regions in the two-dimensional space. Some operationally beneficial properties of the system are proved. The design and results of a numerical simulation for different traffic jam scenarios with up to 15 UAVs are included.