2D path planning for UAVs in radar threatening environment using simulated annealing algorithm

Path planning for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle which can be used in many different purposes is a challenging issue especially in tasks involving large number of visiting points. The problem becomes more complex when the flight environment is taken into account with numerous constraints. In this paper, Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm is used to obtain nearly optimal path in 2D radar constrained environment. A simple threat avoidance approach is developed and applied to the solution found by using SA in order to escape from regular circular radar threats. Tests are conducted to observe the behaviour of SA algorithm and proposed threat avoidance approach. The results show that, in a reasonable period of time, SA algorithm provides acceptable solutions with its capability of escaping from local minima using Metropolis acceptance rule and the proposed threat avoidance approach applied to the best found solution makes the path threat-free simply.