Abstract:

In flight path planning for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) by scanline to achieve region coverage, the minimum turning radius is not fullly considered. To solve this problem, two feasible turning methods, which are named as Ω-turning and α-turning, are proposed. The turning occasion, radius and path are also analyzed and calculated. Theoretical analysis shows that for the same turning method, the smaller the turning radius is， the shorter the UAV’s planning path is; under the same conditions, the path length of Ω-turning is less than that of α-turning. Example shows that when the UAV’s minimum turning radius is less than half the spacing of the scanlines, the path length of Ω-turning is shorter than the path length of the conventional semi-circle turning; when the UAV’s minimum turning radius is greater than half the spacing of the scanlines, the conventional semicircle turning is unavailable but Ω-turning is still effective.