Robust Trajectory Three-Dimensional Path Planning of sUAS in the Slope Surface

Recent advances in small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), photogrammetry, and flight path planning enabled autonomous surveying and mapping. However, most automatic flight path plannings are designed for horizontal planar surfaces. There is vertical path planning for building surfaces with specified building widths and heights. However, there is vertical path planning that creates paths based on the actual geometry of the surfaces to be surveyed, which is required for vertical and sloped surfaces or terrains. This paper presents a robust three-dimensional (3D) UAS trajectory planning to capture the images of sloped surfaces using different flight configurations with waypoints. The flight configurations include flight height, image overlap, and camera angles. A rock surface site in NC was used as a case study to create and validate a 3D flight path.