Coordinated Path Planning for Fixed-wing UAS Conducting Persistent Surveillance Missions

To reliably satisfy objectives, path planning and trajectory management algorithms for fixed-wing aerial systems (UAS) executing persistent surveillance missions must integrate onboard sensor capabilities and vehicle maneuver constraints. In many cases, the characteristic dimensions of sensor fields of view are comparable to the turning radius of the UAS platform. Consequently, when persistent, full area, coverage is required and the number of assets is limited, the complexity of path planning is increased in proportion to the ratio between turning radius and sensor footprint. A technique is developed to integrate persistent surveillance mission requirements with sensor resolution and field of view to facilitate efficient path planning. Spline-based methods are combined with graph search techniques to develop computationally simple algorithms that converge to feasible paths with C-2 continuity.