OPTIMAL PATH PLANNING METHOD FOR UAV BASED ON THE TANGENT POINT ALGORITHM IN URBAN ENVIRONMENT

The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) has to bypass flight due to the com-plex distribution of obstacles in the urban environment. This paper proposes the TPA (tangent point algorithm) used in optimal path planning which can enable UAV to effec-tively avoid obstacles and achieve optimal flight metrics. Firstly, the environment model is established and the obstacles are reconstructed as two-dimensional circles. And the finite path is traversed and the optimal path is selected. Secondly, the UAV kinematic model is established to optimize the UAV flight mode and determine the flight strategy according to the adjacent obstacle circle. Thirdly, the UAV energy consumption model is established based on the energy transfer process and multi-stage optimal path. Finally, the simulation method is used to compare the optimal paths of TPA, A (A-Star), PRM (probabilistic road map), and RRT (rapidly-exploring random tree). TPA has the short-est calculation time and the collision-free optimal path. And the optimal power is chosen to ensure the bi-objective optimization of the flight time and energy consumption. The structural parameters of the UAV and the obstacle information are integrated to deter-mine the optimal flight strategy of the UAV on the optimal path.