Multi-Constrained Three-Dimensional Cooperative Trajectory Planning for Multi-UAVs Based on a High-Performance Meta-Heuristic Method
Zilin Cai, Zhongjun Yu, Haibo Niu, Y L Zhang · Drones · 2026
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path planning is one of the core technologies for realizing precision agricultural operations. In complex farmland environments involving terrain obstacles, tall tree canopies, high-voltage power lines, and restricted no-fly zones, this problem is transformed into a typical multi-objective and multi-constraint optimization problem. Dense constraints drastically narrow the feasible solution space and impose stringent requirements on the convergence, real-time performance, and robustness of planning algorithms. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel meta-heuristic algorithm: the Agricultural Planting Whole-Cycle Management Optimization (APWMO) algorithm. By integrating the cultivation strategy aligned with crop growth cycle dynamics, the demonstration farmland-based elite guidance mechanism, and the elite archive pruning operation, it achieves a dynamic balance between global exploration and local exploitation. Comparative experiments with 15 advanced meta-heuristic algorithms on the 30-dimensional CEC2017 benchmark test suite show that APWMO achieves the best performance in terms of convergence accuracy, convergence speed, and search stability. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified in four 3D farmland path planning tasks with different objective weights and complexity levels. Experimental results confirm that APWMO has excellent path planning performance in complex farmland environments and can provide efficient technical support for practical agricultural UAV tasks such as plant protection spraying, crop growth monitoring, and farmland surveying.