A real-time optimized path planning for a fixed wing vehicle flying in a dynamic and uncertain environment

In this paper, an approach is proposed to determine real-time an optimized and collision-free path for a fixed wing flying vehicle moving in a dynamically changing 3-D space. In the algorithm, boundary conditions, kinematic constraints, and collision avoidance criteria are explicitly considered and satisfied by a family of trajectories parameterized in terms of three polynomials along the primary axes in the 3-D space. By doing so, a family of feasible and collision-free paths are found and the final trajectory planned is selected by optimizing a suitable performance index corresponding to a near-shortest path. The solution to the optimized path and its associated steering controls are found in closed form so that the solution can be implemented efficiently real time and that the planned trajectory can be also quickly updated as the flying environment changes. The proposed method is validated by computer simulations.