3D Path Planning With Weather Forecasts, Ground Risks, and Airspace Information for UAV Mid-Mile Delivery
Chuhao Deng, Worawis Sribunma, Sabine Brunswicker, James Goppert, Inseok Hwang · 2025
Recent advancements in uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) bring innovation across different industries and inspire a wide range of applications. Among them, mid-mile delivery stands out for its potential in leveraging UAVs to greatly increase efficiency and explore regions that are hard to reach using existing transportation systems. However, due to the properties of UAVs, that is, relatively small size and mass, limited visual and sensor information, and low flight levels, they are generally: 1) susceptible to weather, 2) dangerous to ground structures, and 3) restricted to various airspaces. This paper aims to find the optimal 3D path for UAV mid-mile delivery by considering these factors. Weather forecasts, ground risks, and airspace information are integrated to build costs and constraints for the 3D path planning algorithm. The simulation results show that the generated 3D path can effectively reduce total mission time, fuel consumption, and risk while ensuring restricted airspace and areas are avoided.