Koopman-Based Dynamic Environment Prediction for Safe UAV Navigation

Journal article, 2026

This paper presents a Koopman-based model predictive control (MPC) framework for safe UAV navigation in dynamic environments using real-time LiDAR data. By leveraging the Koopman operator to linearly approximate the dynamics of surrounding objects, we enable efficient and accurate prediction of the position of moving obstacles. Embedding this into an MPC formulation ensures robust, collision-free trajectory planning suitable for real-time execution. The method is validated through simulation and ROS2-Gazebo implementation, demonstrating reliable performance under sensor noise, actuation delays, and environmental uncertainty.