Editorial Department of Advances in Aeronautical Science and Engineering
Doi
Abstract
Rational path planning becomes particularly crucial when unmanned aerial vehicle（UAV）formations interact with complex real-world environments. The artificial potential field method exists some drawbacks, such as unreachable target points and local minimum for guiding UAVs through three-dimensional path planning. Firstly, the repulsion calculation formula of the traditional artificial potential field method is improved to solve the problem of unreachable target points in this paper. Then the local minimum is categorized. Different repulsion calculation methods are adopted to address different types of local equilibrium points, and effectively resolving the local minimum problem of the traditional artificial potential field method. Finally, the improved artificial potential field method is applied to the path planning problem of multi-UAV formations by combing with the leader-follower method. Simulation results demonstrate that the multi-UAV formations three-dimensional path planning algorithm based on the improved artificial potential field method effectively solves the path planning problem of multi-UAV formations in static environments
