Real time path planning for UAV based on Focused D

With its long endurance, high safety and low signature, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) plays a great part in intelligence collection, surveillance, reconnaissance, patrol, and target acquisition. Path planning is of significant interest for the autonomous navigation of UAV. A three-dimensional path-planning algorithm based on Focused Dynamic A^* algorithm is presented for UAV under three-dimensional dynamic environments. The problem is dealt with at two steps: based on the information from an a priori environment map, a path avoiding static threats is planned according to A^* algorithm first. Then, when following the path, UAV updates the map and corrects the path with sensor information by making using of the previous intermediate states of A^*. To improve the smoothness of the path, B-spline is adopted for path smoothing. Simulation results show the efficiency and validity of the algorithm.