PPS: Energy-Aware Grid-Based Coverage Path Planning for UAVs Using Area Partitioning in the Presence of NFZs

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Automation
• Geospatial Analysis
• Networked Systems

Background:

• Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks are crucial for area monitoring and surveillance.
• Optimizing resource usage and minimizing mission time are key challenges in UAV path planning.
• Existing area partitioning strategies face limitations with complex environments and non-flying zones.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel area partitioning method for UAV path planning.
• To address the challenge of non-flying zones (NFZs) in surveillance missions.
• To enhance the efficiency and quality of UAV-based area monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Parallel Partitioning along a Side (PPS) method.
• Integration of grid-mapping and grid-subdivision for area decomposition.
• Path planning algorithms designed to incorporate Non-Flying Zones (NFZs).

Main Results:

• The PPS method enables UAVs to plan paths with minimized energy consumption.
• The approach reduces the number of turns and overall mission completion time.
• Evaluation demonstrates improved coverage quality compared to existing methods.

Conclusions:

• The Parallel Partitioning along a Side (PPS) method offers an effective solution for UAV area monitoring.
• The proposed strategy successfully optimizes resource utilization and mission efficiency.
• PPS enhances the practical application of UAV networks in surveillance tasks, especially with NFZs.