STEALTH PATH PLANNING FOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAVS)IN HOSTILE RADAR ZONES

摘要

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being used in real-world applications, mostly military. Military missions are turning to more complicated and advanced automation technology for maximum endurance and efficiency as well as minimum vital risks. Path planners which generate collision-free and optimized paths are needed to give autonomous operation capability to the UAVs. This paper presents an off-line path planner for UAVs. The path planner is based on efficient graph search algorithm, in order to compute a stealthy path line with desired attributes in radar prone environments. The generated path is represented with a set of low-radar risk waypoints being the coordinates of its control points. The flight path is approximated using cubic B-splines by considering the shortest distance to the destination with minimal radar risk. Simulated results are presented, illustrating the potential benefits of such algorithms.