Concurrent constraint programming-based path planning for uninhabited air vehicles

摘要

This paper describes a study performed with the objective of investigating Concurrent Constraint Programming (CCP) as the main tool for the design and the implementation of a software path planner. The main features of the path planning are introduced along with some modeling and implementation issues. The CCP approach is motivated by the facility of translating complex models with domain specific features into efficient implementations. In order to use CCP, the path planning is formalized as a constraint satisfaction problem by defining variables, domains, and constraints. The proposed solution is as general as possible, and it is widely applicable in several contexts. A demo application has been implemented, and it is described in this paper. The application comes with a graphical interface that allow the user to define the mission constraints. The output of the application is a path plan, i.e. a list of waypoints that can also be displayed on a geographical map. The estimated path length, fuel consumption, and path risk are given as well.