Planning of the coverage route for multi-UAVs based on section optimization

Route planning coverage is commonly used in vacuuming, mapping, and tracking of the area. A group of programmable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an ideal choice for such missions to increase coverage efficiency. In this paper, for the large-scale environmental coverage challenge, a novel route planning approach is proposed, which gathers abundant information per unit length and ensures full coverage for the entire environment. The proposed approach is based on the method of section optimization, as it is extremely difficult to obtain a coverage route directly for the large-scale setting with accurate and reliable information. Next, the atmosphere is divided into several small sub-regions that conform to the sensor’s detection distance. Based on this, the optimal coverage route for each sub-region is calculated. For clarity, the route in each sub-region is termed as a partial path. Under certain specific constraints, the obtained partial routes are connected to constitute an integral path. It is worth noting that the higher steering frequency and the greater turning angle will result in more time and energy consumption. The proposed approach is also aimed at reducing these two significant indexes. Another benefit of the proposed approach is that even if the area in charge is changed, it is easy to adjust. To validate the performance of the proposed planning scheme, simulation, and experimental results are provided.