Path Planning Algorithm for Emergency Landing of Fixed-Wing UAV

With the increasing use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), there has been a need to develop new technologies and research that will ensure UAVs safely navigate and complete their tasks efficiently. As with any vehicle, unforeseen errors may be encountered that may require UAVs to land as fast and as safely as possible in an area that is free of obstacles and preferably flat. Once the UAV has determined a safe spot to land, path planning is one of the most important factors to be considered. In this research, different path planning algorithms, including RRT planner, RRT* planner, and Bi-directional RRT planner, were applied to various simulated scenarios and terrains to determine which provides the shortest path possible. Different 3D maps were used for the different planners to determine their performance. Simulation results show that the path length obtained by the RRT path planner algorithm is shortest compared to the other methods. However, RRT provides the longest execution time among the three. After applying path smoothing algorithms, RRT smoothed paths still provided the shortest path, thus, giving the shortest time to reach the goal. For future work, it is recommended to implement these planners into actual UAV to test their robustness and effectiveness.