Time cooperative path planning for unmanned marine system

Abstract

ObjectiveIn order to solve the problem of time cooperative path planning for unmanned marine system (UMS) in complex environments, we propose a cooperative path planning method based on a differential evolution (DE) algorithm. MethodsFirst, natural environment and enemy threat models in the air, sea and underwater are established. The objective function of path planning with multiple constraints is constructed and a strategy proposed to solve the time coordination problem under the constraints of heterogeneous platforms starting at different times and places, but arriving at the same time and place. Next, a DE algorithm is used to optimize the solution, and the influence of the number of waypoints on the success rate of the planning is studied. ResultsBased on the reasonable selection of the number of waypoints, the DE algorithm can respectively plan the path that satisfies the time cooperative constraint for the UMS and find the shortest time to reaching the target in complex environments with multiple threats and obstacles. The results also show that either excessive or inadequate numbers of waypoints will result in success rate reduction of the path planning. ConclusionsThe results of this study show that the model and constraint conditions are reasonable, and the proposed algorithm can solve the problem of time coordination in the path planning of UMS, which has great practical application value.

Keywords

• unmanned marine system (ums)
• path plannning
• time coordination