Dubins-A*: A New Global Path Planning Scheme for Fixed-Wing UAV with Irregular Obstacles Avoidance
Junyi Xu, Mengji Shi, Fan Tang, Xinyu Sun, Jiangfeng Yue, Boxian Lin, Kaiyu Qin · 2024
Path planning for a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in irregular obstacle environments is a complex problem that requires consideration of the kinematic constraints of the UAV, the shape and distribution of obstacles, and the safety and efficiency of flight. With this in mind, this paper presents a new global path planning algorithm Dubins-A*for fixed-wing UAV based on Dubins curves and the A*algorithm. Firstly, an obstacle avoidance path generation algorithm, termed Dubins-avoid which utilizes Dubins curves to navigate around arbitrary polygonal obstacles, is designed. Subsequently, global path planning is executed using the path generated by the Dubins-avoid algorithm in conjunction with the A*algorithm’s search strategy. To enhance robustness, a backtracking mechanism is incorporated to circumvent local minima, alongside an updating node mechanism designed to decrease the number of explored nodes. The effectiveness and superiority of the Dubins$A^{*}$ algorithm are demonstrated through testing in three distinct scenarios.