A fast global flight path planning algorithm based on space circumscription and sparse visibility graph for unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract

This paper proposes a new flight path planning algorithm that finds collision-free, optimal/near-optimal and flyable paths for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in three-dimensional (3D) environments with fixed obstacles. The proposed algorithm significantly reduces pathfinding computing time without significantly degrading path lengths by using space circumscription and a sparse visibility graph in the pathfinding process. We devise a novel method by exploiting the information about obstacle geometry to circumscribe the search space in the form of a half cylinder from which a working path for UAV can be computed without sacrificing the guarantees on near-optimality and speed. Furthermore, we generate a sparse visibility graph from the circumscribed space and find the initial path, which is subsequently optimized. The proposed algorithm effectively resolves the efficiency and optimality trade-off by searching the path only from the high priority circumscribed space of a map. The simulation results obtained from various maps, and comparison with the existing methods show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and verify the aforementioned claims.