College of Systems Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, 410073, China.
Sci Rep. 2023 Feb 8;13(1):2234. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-28087-0.
The multi-UAV path planning method based on artificial potential field (APF) has the advantage of rapid processing speed and the ability to deal with dynamic obstacles, though some problems remain-such as a lack of consideration of the initial heading constraint of the UAVs, making it easy to fall into a local minimum trap, and the path not being sufficiently smooth. Consequently, a fixed-wing UAV formation path planning method based on piecewise potential field (PPF) is proposed, where the problem of UAV formation flight path planning in different states can be solved by suitable design of the PPF function. Firstly, the potential field vector can be used to represent the potential field functions of obstacles and target points to meet the kinematic constraints of the UAV. Secondly, the local minimum region can be detected, the additional potential field vector being set to break away from this region. Finally, the change rules of the potential field vector of a UAV in the formation reconstruction scene can be designed, a smooth formation flight track being assured by adjusting the corresponding speed of each UAV track point. Considering the path planning of a five-UAV formation as an example, we conducted simulation experiments. The results showed that-compared with the existing methods based on APF-the results obtained using the PPF-based method considered the initial heading limits of the UAVs, the planned path being considerably smoother. Moreover, the proposed method could plan multiple UAV tracks, satisfying the known constraints without conflict in complex scenarios.
基于人工势场 (APF) 的多无人机路径规划方法具有处理速度快和处理动态障碍物的能力，但仍存在一些问题，例如没有考虑无人机的初始航向约束，容易陷入局部最小值陷阱，并且路径不够平滑。因此，提出了一种基于分段势场 (PPF) 的固定翼无人机编队路径规划方法，可以通过合适的 PPF 函数设计来解决不同状态下的无人机编队飞行路径规划问题。首先，可以使用势场向量来表示障碍物和目标点的势场函数，以满足无人机的运动学约束。其次，可以检测局部最小值区域，并设置附加的势场向量以脱离该区域。最后，可以设计无人机编队重构场景中势场向量的变化规则，通过调整每个无人机航点的相应速度来保证编队的平滑飞行轨迹。考虑到五架无人机编队的路径规划作为一个例子，我们进行了仿真实验。结果表明，与现有的基于 APF 的方法相比，基于 PPF 的方法考虑了无人机的初始航向限制，规划的路径更加平滑。此外，该方法可以规划多条无人机轨迹，在复杂场景中满足已知约束且没有冲突。
