An Optimized Routing Method for Terrain Referenced Navigation
Irfan Madani, D. J. Allerton · AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit · 2006
This paper describes a method to represent digital terrain elevation data (DTED) as a quad-tree structure to compress the terrain elevation data to a manageable size and provide fast access to features in the quad-tree for real-time route extraction. By accessing the terrain quad-tree at speciflc levels and rounding terrain elevation to speciflc bands, the speed of the search algorithms is signiflcantly improved and can be traded-ofi with accuracy. A ∞ight path planning algorithm is described which can be optimized for path length, exposure to threats and also for pilot work load in manoeuvring. The paper explains how the A* search algorithm can be adapted for a number of constraints, including a pilot work load index, which depends on the routes ofiered. A number of examples are presented in the paper to show the performance and efiectiveness of the algorithms, covering basic routing and routing around threats.