UAV Path Planning Research Articles

Path planning for multiple UAVs using RRT*FND in a dynamic environment

Path planning for multiple UAVs using RRT*FND in a dynamic environment

Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Approach for 3D Path Planning of UAV

Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Approach for 3D Path Planning of UAV

Hybrid particle swarm optimisation approach for 3D path planning of UAV

Hybrid particle swarm optimisation approach for 3D path planning of UAV

A Survey of Indoor UAV Obstacle Avoidance Research

UAV obstacle avoidance technology is one of the key factors to realize UAV autonomous flight, efficient and accurate obstacle avoidance is significant to complete the UAV autonomous flight task. In contrast, the dynamic, real-time and uncertainty of the environment in which the UAV is located makes the problem very tricky, especially in the indoor environment. At present, a large number of scholars have shown strong interest in the indoor UAV obstacle avoidance problem. With the rapid development of computer technology and hardware devices, many intelligent algorithms have been proposed to solve the obstacle avoidance problem. However, the research on indoor UAV obstacle avoidance technology is not comprehensive enough, and there is a lack of summarization of the research results in recent years. This paper introduces the sensor modules commonly used for indoor UAV environment sensing, related obstacle avoidance methods based on sensory detection. Classifies and composes the commonly used UAV path planning obstacle avoidance algorithms, and gives several representative UAV flight control research methods. This paper summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of different perception modules and detection methods applied to UAV obstacle avoidance tasks, and compares various current path planning methods. Finally, the critical difficulties and challenges faced in the field of indoor UAV obstacle avoidance are discussed, and future research in the field of UAV obstacle avoidance has prospected.

Toward UAV Path Planning Problem Optimization Considering the Internet of Drones

Toward UAV Path Planning Problem Optimization Considering the Internet of Drones

Resilient Path Planning for UAVs in Data Collection Under Adversarial Attacks

In this paper, we investigate jamming-resilient UAV path planning strategies for data collection in Internet of Things (IoT) networks, in which the typical UAV can learn the optimal trajectory to elude such jamming attacks. Specifically, the typical UAV is required to collect data from multiple distributed IoT nodes under collision avoidance, mission completion deadline, and kinematic constraints in the presence of jamming attacks. We first design a fixed ground jammer with continuous jamming attack and periodical jamming attack strategies to jam the link between the typical UAV and IoT nodes. Defensive strategies involving a reinforcement learning (RL) based virtual jammer and the adoption of higher SINR thresholds are proposed to counteract against such attacks. Secondly, we design an intelligent UAV jammer, which utilizes the RL algorithm to choose actions based on its observation. Then, an intelligent UAV anti-jamming strategy is constructed to deal with such attacks, and the optimal trajectory of the typical UAV is obtained via dueling double deep Q-network (D3QN). Simulation results show that both non-intelligent and intelligent jamming attacks have significant influence on the UAV’s performance, and the proposed defense strategies can recover the performance close to that in no-jammer scenarios.

A multi-strategy improved slime mould algorithm for global optimization and engineering design problems

In the application of metaheuristic algorithms (MAs) to complicated optimization problem solving, it is significant to balance the exploitation and exploration to obtain a good near-optimum solution to the problem. Therefore, in this study, to balance the exploitative and explorative features of conventional MAs, a multi-strategy improved slime mould algorithm called MSMA is introduced. In MSMA, a new search equation is developed to achieve a tradeoff between exploitation and exploration. Then the dynamic random search technique is utilized as a local search engine to enhance the search efficiency of the algorithm. Finally, the adaptive mutation probability is designed to avoid premature convergence. MSMA is evaluated using 28 benchmark functions and several practical engineering issues such as welded beam design, pressure vessel design, tension/compression spring design, and UAV path planning. The simulation results based on 30 independent runs demonstrate that it is more efficient and robust than other state-of-the-art techniques from the literature according to the selected performance metrics such as mean values and standard deviations. The source code of MSMA is publicly available at https://github.com/denglingyun123/Multi-strategy-improved-slime-mould-algorithm.

A novel adaptive two-stage approach to dynamic optimal path planning of UAV in 3-D unknown environments

A novel adaptive two-stage approach to dynamic optimal path planning of UAV in 3-D unknown environments

A hybrid algorithm based on grey wolf optimizer and differential evolution for UAV path planning

Autonomous navigation is significant to UAVs, especially in disaster scenarios. A Hybrid GWO and Differential Evolution (HGWODE) algorithm is developed to solve UAV path planning. In HGWODE, GWO and DE algorithms cooperate well to balance exploitation and exploration. The position-updated equation of GWO is improved, which makes alpha, beta, and delta wolves search around the alpha wolf, and omega wolves search around the top three wolves to boost the exploitation. A rank-based mutation strategy is implemented in DE algorithm to promote exploitation while maintaining the exploration capacity. We test HGWODE on CEC 2014 and UAV path planning. The proposed HGWODE is superior to GWO and several GWO variants when solving test functions and UAV path planning models. UAV path from HGWODE is smoother and shorter than its rivals.

Helix-HPSO approach for UAV path planning in a multi-building environment

Helix-HPSO approach for UAV path planning in a multi-building environment

UAV Path Planning Model Based on R5DOS Model Improved A-Star Algorithm

In order to solve the problems of large amounts of calculation and long calculation times of the A-star algorithm in three-dimensional space, based on the R5DOS model, this paper proposes a three-dimensional space UAV path planning model. The improved R5DOS intersection model is combined with the improved A-star algorithm. Together, they construct a local search process, and the R5DOS path planning model is established by reducing the number of search nodes. The path planning model is simulated through MATLAB software and the model can greatly reduce the number of nodes and computational complexity of the A-star algorithm in three-dimensional spaces, while also reducing the calculation time of the UAV. Finally, we compare the improved A-star algorithm with the original A-star algorithm and the geometric A-star algorithm. The final fitting result proves that the improved A-star algorithm has a shorter computation time and fewer node visits. Overall, the simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the improved A-star algorithm and they can be used as a reference for future research on path planning algorithms.

Research on the path planning of transportation UAV in rasterization scene based on ant colony algorithm

Aiming at the difficulty of material distribution on the island, this paper uses the ant colony algorithm to simulate the path of the transport UAV based on the two-dimensional gridded island scene. Since the ant colony algorithm has significant advantages of strong robustness and high scalability, this paper fully verifies the feasibility of the transportation UAV path planning in the rasterized island scene.

Path Planning of Electric VTOL UAV Considering Minimum Energy Consumption in Urban Areas

As a new mode of transportation in the future, electric vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles (eVTOL UAV) can undertake the task of logistics distribution and carry people in urban areas. It is challenging to carry out research designed to plan the path of eVTOL UAVs which can have a safe and sustainable operation mode in urban areas. Therefore, this work proposes a method for planning an obstacle-free path for eVTOL UAVs in urban areas with the goal of minimizing energy consumption. It aims to improve the safety and sustainability of eVTOL UAV operations. Based on variations of air density with height, a more accurate formula for calculating battery energy consumption of eVTOL UAV is derived. It is used in the vertical takeoff and landing phase and horizontal flight phase, respectively. Considering the influence of buildings on eVTOL UAV operation, a path planning method applicable to complex urban environments is proposed. The safe nodes of eVTOL UAV flight are obtained by using Voronoi diagrams based on building locations. Then, the complete shortest and obstacle-free path is obtained by using a Dubins geometric path and Floyd algorithm. After obtaining the obstacle-free paths for all flight height zones, the battery energy consumption of the eVTOL UAV in each flight height zone is calculated. Then, the flight height with the minimum energy consumption is obtained. The simulation results show that the path length obtained by the proposed path planning method is shorter than that obtained by particle swarm optimization; the total battery energy consumption changes in the same pattern in the low-altitude areas and high-altitude areas; the difference between the maximum and minimum energy consumption in the small area enables the eVTOL UAV to cover about 350 m more, and about 420 m more in the large area. Therefore, in future high-frequency UAV mission flights, choosing the altitude with the lowest energy consumption can reduce UAV operator costs. It can also significantly increase UAV transport range and make UAVs operate more sustainably.

Path Planning for UAV Based on Improved PRM

In this paper, an improved probabilistic roadmap (IPRM) algorithm is proposed to solve the energy consumption problem of multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path planning with an angle. Firstly, in order to simulate the real terrain environment, a mathematical model was established; secondly, an energy consumption model was established; then, the sampling space of the probabilistic roadmap (PRM) algorithm was optimized to make the obtained path more explicit and improve the utilization rate in space and time; then, the sampling third-order B-spline curve method was used to curve the rotation angle to make the path smoother and the distance shorter. Finally, the results of the improved genetic algorithm (IGA), PRM algorithm and IPRM algorithm were compared through a simulation. The data analysis shows that the IGA has significant advantages over other algorithms in some aspects, and can be well applied to the path planning of UAVs.

A Memetic Path Planning Algorithm for Unmanned Air/Ground Vehicle Cooperative Detection Systems

The studies of Unmanned Air/Ground Vehicle (UAV/UGV) cooperative detection systems have received much attention due to their wide applications in the disaster rescue, target tracking, intelligent surveillance, and automatical package delivery missions. UAVs provide a broad view and have a fast speed in the air, while UGVs have sufficient load capacity and can serve as repeater stations on the ground. The path planning of a UAV/UGV cooperative system is an important but difficult issue, which aims to plan paths for both the UAVs and the UGVs in the system to cooperatively complete a mission. In this article, we consider the path planning problem of the UAV/UGV cooperative system for illegal urban building detection, by taking the limits of UGV speed, UAV load power, and UAV/UGV communication restriction into consideration. To solve this problem, we first model the path planning problem as a constraint optimization problem which tries to minimize an overall execution time for completing the illegal urban building detection tasks, and then propose a two-level memetic algorithm (called Two-MA) to solve the path planning problems of both the UAV and the UGV. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world data sets show the superiority of the proposed Two-MA over several states-of-the-art algorithms in solving the path planning problems of the UAV and UGV for illegal urban building detection tasks. Note to Practitioners—This article was motivated by the task of detecting illegal buildings in cities by unmanned vehicles. Previous works mainly focus on path planning of either UAVs or UGVs in this task. This article proposes a new approach using an Unmanned Air/Ground Vehicle (UAV/UGV) cooperative system for detecting illegal buildings in parks, by taking the limits of UGV speed, UAV load power, and UAV/UGV communication restriction into consideration. This cooperative system consists of a UAV, UGV, and control center. The UAV equipped with cameras takes aerial photography in the air, and can transmit collected photos to the control center. The UGV executes loading and transportation on the ground, and can serve as takeoff and landing platforms for the UAV. The control center executes computationally intensive tasks such as data transmission and processing, task scheduling, and vehicle coordination. To quickly complete all detection tasks, a memetic algorithm is proposed for path planning of both the UAV and the UGV. The simulated results show that the proposed algorithm enables the UAV/UGV cooperative system to visit all buildings in cities with a minimum task execution time.

Coordinating heterogeneous mobile sensing platforms for effectively monitoring a dispersed gas plume

In order to sufficiently protect active personnel and physical environment from hazardous leaks, recent industrial practices integrate innovative multi-modalities so as to maximize response efficiency. Since the early detection of such incidents portrays the most critical factor for providing efficient response measures, the continuous and reliable surveying of industrial spaces is of primary importance. Current study develops a surveying mechanism, utilizing a swarm of heterogeneous aerial mobile sensory platforms, for the continuous monitoring and detection of CH4 dispersed gas plumes. In order to timely represent the CH4 diffusion progression incident, the research concerns a simulated indoor, geometrically complex environment, where early detection and timely response are critical. The primary aim was to evaluate the efficiency of a novel multi-agent, closed-loop, algorithm responsible for the UAV path-planning of the swarm, in comparison with an efficient a state-of-the-art path-planning EGO methodology, acting as a benchmark. Abbreviated as Block Coordinate Descent Cognitive Adaptive Optimization (BCD-CAO) the novel algorithm outperformed the Efficient Global Optimization (EGO) algorithm, in seven simulation scenarios, demonstrating improved dynamic adaptation of the aerial UAV swarm towards its heterogeneous operational capabilities. The evaluation results presented herein, exhibit the efficiency of the proposed algorithm for continuously conforming the mobile sensing platforms’ formation towards maximizing the total measured density of the diffused volume plume.

A Learning Vector Particle Swarm Algorithm Incorporating Sparrow for UAV Path Planning

UAV path planning has become a research hotspot in the current era. In order to make UAV plan the route reasonably in the real environment, this paper proposes a learning vector particle swarm optimization algorithm (slpso) based on sparrow, which uses vector decomposition of individual position to control the safety in the path; Firstly, the elite secondary reverse learning strategy is used to increase the distribution of the population; Then, the discoverer phase of sparrow search algorithm is introduced to update the optimal location of particle swarm optimization algorithm and enhance the population diversity. When the algorithm comes to a standstill, a one-dimensional learning strategy is used to improve the subsequent optimization means to help the algorithm jump out of the local optimization. Through the path planning experiments of the two models and Wilcoxon rank sum test, it can be seen that slpso has better effect than other algorithms in terms of path planning and convergence speed, and the route planned in complex environment is more secure and stable.

Multi-objective NSGA-II optimization framework for UAV path planning in an UAV-assisted WSN

Multi-objective NSGA-II optimization framework for UAV path planning in an UAV-assisted WSN

Autonomous UAV Path-Planning Optimization Using Metaheuristic Approach for Predisaster Assessment

In this article, different state-of-the-art metaheuristic algorithms are analyzed to incorporate the collision-free path-planning approach for UAVs in a disaster situation. The efficient path planning is used to identify the main cause of disaster like bushfires that are badly affecting the forest ecosystem throughout the globe. This novel approach is a first step toward a predisaster assessment and possibilities to save the survivors in minimal time. Different metaheuristic algorithms, such as PSO, GWO, WOA, BMO, and DGBCO, are compared for UAV path optimization capability. In order to test the robustness of our proposed model, four different scenarios are presented which include general environment, condense environment, maze environment, and dynamic environment. In each scenario, the obstacles are placed in such a way to increase the overall path complexity for a UAV to reach the destination. The exploration and exploitation groups working simultaneously in a dynamic environment make it effective for UAV path planning using the DGBCO algorithm. Based on the parameters selected, the DGBCO algorithm outperforms other algorithms and achieves 24.5% less transportation cost and 13.3% less computational time. Hence, DGBCO can be efficiently applied for UAV path-planning optimization in any of the aforementioned environments.

Fixed-Wing UAV Energy Efficient 3D Path Planning in Cluttered Environments

UAV path planning in 3D cluttered and uncertain environments centers on finding an optimal / sub-optimal collision-free path, considering in parallel geometric, physical and temporal constraints, fox example, obstacles, infrastructure, physical or artificial landmarks, etc. This paper introduces a novel node-based algorithm, called Energy Efficient A* (EEA*), which is based on the A* search algorithm, but overcomes some of its key limitations. The EEA* deals with 3D environments, it is robust converging fast to the solution, it is energy efficient and it is real-time implementable and executable. In addition to the EEA*, a local path planner is also derived to cope with unknown dynamic threats within the working environment. The EEA* and the local path planner are first implemented and evaluated via simulated experiments using a fixed-wing UAV operating in mountain-like 3D environments, and in the presence of unknown dynamic obstacles. This is followed by evaluating a set up where three UAVs are commanded to follow their respective paths in a safe way. The energy efficiency of EEA* is also tested and compared with the conventional A* algorithm.