Coverage path planning for UAVs in unknown directional regions

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of path planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles UAVs in an unknown directional region. Paths are planned to maximise the amount of information from desired region while accounting for the trajectory length. In this paper, an exploration system is proposed for specific cases with shifting directions such as rivers and lakes. Taking account of data synchronisation errors, this method maximises the amount of information value and optimises the path length. Desired region is divided into grids based on required image resolution as well as time needed during the process. Analyses show that the real area and path length are closely related to the yaw angle of UAVs. The path planning issue is studied as an optimisation problem and has been solved by a modified depth-first search method. Monte-Carlo simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, in which the UAV performs a task to track targets on a flowing river.