A preference-based path planning approach for multi-UAV collaborate reconnaissance in static environment
Longmei Li, Yuquan Xue, Yanting Yu · 2022
The collaborate path planning of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for patrolling and reconnaissance in static environment is addressed in this paper. In the application of urgent observation, two objectives are considered simultaneously, i.e., time cost and energy cost. A good plan makes sure that all the targets are observed as soon as possible, and the overall energy consumption as low as possible. The problem is formulated as a multiple traveling salesman problem (MTSP) with multiple depots, known as a nondeterministic polynomial-hard problem. A preference-based multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. Preferred range of each objective is used as preference information, and the algorithm aims at Pareto optimal solutions that match the preference. Through computational experiments, the benefit of the proposed algorithm (T-MOEA/D-2opt) is demonstrated by comparing with other existing algorithms. Experimental results show that T-MOEA/D-2opt is effective and efficient in finding preferred Pareto solutions for this path planning problem.