Improved A-Star Path Planning Algorithm in Obstacle Avoidance for the Fixed-Wing Aircraft

Abstract

The flight management system is a basic component of avionics for modern airliners. However, the airborne flight management system needs to be improved and relies on imports; path planning is the key to the flight management system. Based on the classical A* algorithm, this paper proposes an improved A* path planning algorithm, which solves the problem of low planning efficiency and following a non-smooth path. In order to solve the problem of the large amount of data calculation and long planning time of the classical A* algorithm, a new data structure called a “value table” is designed to replace the open table and close table of the classical A* algorithm to improve the retrieval efficiency, and the Heap sort algorithm is used to optimize the efficiency of node sorting. Aiming at the problem that the flight trajectory is hard to follow, the trajectory smoothing optimization algorithm combined with turning angle limit is proposed. The gray value in the digital map is added to the A* algorithm, and the calculation methods of gray cost, cumulative cost, and estimated cost are improved, which can better meet the constraints of obstacle avoidance. Through the comparative simulation verification of the algorithm, the improved A* algorithm can significantly reduce the path planning time to 1% compared to the classical A* algorithm; it can be seen that the proposed algorithm improves the efficiency of path planning and the smoother planned path, which has obvious advantages compared to the classical A* algorithm.