Trajectory planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle based on A* algorithm

The trajectory planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and Aerial Robots generally refers to a series of optimization problems. This paper presents a method of trajectory planning and design for UAV based on the A* algorithm. Using grids to process the trajectory path planning of UAV under the environment with presence of obstacles, and then search the shortest path from the initial point to the target point based on rasterized environment using A* algorithm. The simulation of trajectory planning is implemented in the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 developing environment. Through the simulation of trajectory planning, it can be proved that UAV can find the shortest path from the initial point to the target point based on A* algorithm.

I. Introduction

The navigation, path design and trajectory planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) generally refers to a series of optimization problems. It includes the determination of the air take-off position, target position, goals and tasks of the flight. According to the UAV maneuvering performance, flight information carries out an optimal or a sub-optimal path to satisfy the flight conditions such as the geographical environment and the threat. Based on the degree of knowledge of the environmental information and the different obstacles, the mobile robot trajectory planning basically can be divided into the following categories: 1) static obstacles path planning under the known conditions; 2) static obstacles path planning under unknown environments; 3) the trajectory planning under the known environment with dynamic obstacles; 4) the trajectory planning under the unknown environment with dynamic obstacles.