Optimal path planning for unmanned aerial vehicles in power line inspection in rechargeable scenario

To address the issue that a single charge of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) do not satisfy task requirements, this paper proposes a solution involving the deployment of charging stations in the mission area. An energy-efficient path planning method is designed for UAVs with charging stations, which simultaneously determines the deployment locations and quantities of charging stations. The method formulates the energy optimization path planning problem of UAVs as an integer linear programming and an algorithm based on greedy strategy is designed for solving the model. A numerical example including simulations across various scenarios demonstrate that the proposed method can search a more energy-efficient paths compared to single-agent multi-sortie schemes with a greedy strategy. This research contributes to the development of intelligent and autonomous UAV systems for power line inspection, enhancing grid reliability and safety.