Path Planning of Intelligent UAVs using Computational Geometric Techniques

In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, commonly referred to as UAVs, are heavily used in various real-time scenarios without involving human interaction. Also, they are among the most extensively researched topics. The profit of using UAVs has also come up with different challenges. One of the most important among them is the Coverage Path Planning problem, generally abbreviated as CPP. Computation of path also involves the consideration of various static and dynamic obstacles. While considering geographic areas as polygons, path planning of UAVs becomes difficult for concave polygons. To obtain an optimal path in a concave polygon, we have proposed the Field of View-based Sweep-Line method(Fo VSL) technique. This proposed work has enhanced the existing Sweep-Line method for finding the optimal path in a polygonal area. As the solution can be obtained with ease when the polygons are convex, the use of the convex polygonal decomposition technique is adapted with the proposed method. The inclusion of the Boustrophedon method reduced the total number of turns taken by the UAV. Comparative analysis with the existing technique proves that the proposed method minimizes the total path to be traveled with a reduction in the number of turns taken by the UA V resulting in overall minimization of the time consumed for the entire traversal.