Study on UAV Path Planning Approach Based on Fuzzy Virtual Force

Abstract This article proposes a novel fuzzy virtual force (FVF) method for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path planning in complicated environment. An integrated mathematical model of UAV path planning based on virtual force (VF) is constructed and the corresponding optimal solving method under the given indicators is presented. Specifically, a fixed step method is developed to reduce computational cost and the reachable condition of path planning is proved. The Bayesian belief network and fuzzy logic reasoning theories are applied to setting the path planning parameters adaptively, which can reflect the battlefield situation dynamically and precisely. A new way of combining threats is proposed to solve the local minima problem completely. Simulation results prove the feasibility and usefulness of using FVF for UAV path planning. Performance comparisons between the FVF method and the A* search algorithm demonstrate that the proposed approach is fast enough to meet the real-time requirements of the online path planning problems.