Path Planning for a Fire-Fighting Aircraft Using Fuzzy Logic

Abstract

The effectiveness of path planning of a fire-fighting aircraft using fuzzy logic for the purpose of fighting forest fires is explored in this paper. Using previous work on path tracking and obstacle avoidance with fuzzy logic as a starting point, the effort has been expanded to include logic for continuously changing target location and verification of results for moving obstacles. When combating wildfires, situations can change rapidly due to fluctuating environmental conditions (wind, fuel, terrain, etc) that can affect the target location. A system that can handle these varying conditions rapidly and efficiently is imperative to these situations. Presented here is a fuzzy inference system that takes information about obstacles (if within the agent’s sensing range) and target location and outputs a change in heading angle and speed accordingly. The agent’s objective is to take the shortest path to the target area while also avoiding obstacles. These obstacles could be mountains, no-fly zones, areas in which it is too dangerous to fly, or other agents. Presented here is a path planning with obstacle avoidance fuzzy inference system and verification on a simplified fire growth model.