Path Planning for Aircrafts using Alternate TF/TA
Min Jiang, Cheng Xu, Hua Ji · 2020
Aiming at the problem of terrain following path planning with tall and isolated obstacles under complex terrain, a scheme of alternate terrain following and terrain avoiding (alternate TF/TA) is proposed, considering the constraints of terrain, maximum climbing/glide angle, minimum turning radius. First, a new terrain smoothing algorithm is proposed based on the principle of down sampling. Second, the models of uphill and downhill flight path are established by referring to the dubins curves in longitudinal planning; and the particle swarm optimization algorithm and the B-spline curve are applied on lateral planning when the aircraft cannot overfly the obstacle. Finally, the simulation verification shows that the aircraft can effectively fly around tall and isolated obstacles with smooth path and close to the terrain through the proposed scheme. Compared with the traditional terrain following method based on slope, curvature and safety height limits, the total length and average height of the path are reduced by 0.28% and 10.10% respectively.