UAVs mission planning with flight level constraint using Fast Marching Square Method

In the last decade, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been a research focus for many purposes. Many of these studies require a path planning to perform autonomous flights, as well as the maintenance of a fixed flight level with respect to the ground to capture videos or overlying images. This article presents an approach to plan a mission for UAVs keeping a fixed flight level constraint. The 3D environment where the planning is carried out is an open field with non-uniform terrain. The approach proposed is based on the Fast Marching Square (FM2) method, which generates a path free from obstacles. Our approach includes two adjustment parameters. Depending on the values of these parameters, the restriction of flight level can be modified, as well as the smoothness and safety of the generated paths. Simulated experiments carried out in this work demonstrate that the proposed approach generates trajectories respecting a fixed flight level over the ground with successful results.