3D Interpolation-Based Path Planning for a Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft

Abstract

Path planning for unmanned aircraft has attracted a remarkable amount of interest from the research community. However, planning in large environments such as the civil airspace has not been addressed extensively. In this paper we apply a heuristic incremental interpolation-based search algorithm with ecient replanning capabilities to the path planning problem for a fixed-wing aircraft operating in a natural environment to plan and re-plan long flight paths. We modified the algorithm to account for the minimum turning radius and the limited flight path angles of a fixed-wing aircraft. Additionally, we present a method to consider a desired minimum cruising altitude. These properties specific to aircraft operation could not be addressed with the original algorithm. Simulation results show that the planner produces intuitive, short paths and is capable of exploiting previous planning eorts, when unknown obstacles are encountered.