A descent method for the Dubins traveling salesman problem with neighborhoods

Abstract

In this study, we focus mainly on the problem of finding the minimum-length path through a set of circular regions by a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle. Such a problem is referred to as the Dubins traveling salesman problem with neighborhoods (DTSPN). Algorithms developed in the literature for solving DTSPN either are computationally demanding or generate low-quality solutions. To achieve a better trade-off between solution quality and computational cost, an efficient gradient-free descent method is designed. The core idea of the descent method is to decompose DTSPN into a series of subproblems, each of which consists of finding the minimum-length path of a Dubins vehicle from a configuration to another configuration via an intermediate circular region. By analyzing the geometric properties of the subproblems, we use a bisection method to solve the subproblems. As a result, the descent method can efficiently address DTSPN by successively solving a series of subproblems. Finally, several numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the descent method in comparison with several existing algorithms.