A review on energy efficient path planning algorithms for unmanned air vehicles

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a type of autonomous vehicle for which energy efficient path planning is a crucial issue. The use of UAV has been increased to replace humans in performing risky missions at adversarial environments and thus, the requirement of path planning with efficient energy consumption is necessary. This study analyses all the available path planning algorithms in terms of energy efficiency for a UAV. At the same time, the consideration is also given to the computation time, path length and completeness because UAV must compute a stealthy and minimal path length to save energy. Its range is limited and hence, time spent over a surveyed territory should be minimal, which in turn makes path length always a factor in any algorithm. Also the path must have a realistic trajectory and should be feasible for the UAV.