Coverage Path Planning for Aircraft Skin Inspection UGV under Curvature Constraints

This paper presents a coverage path planning method tailored for the automated inspection of aircraft skin using an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). Initially, by employing a dual sampling approach, the viewpoint space satisfying various constraints such as photogrammetry, safety distance, and equipment status is computed for each target detection cell across the aircraft’s surface. Subsequently, adhering to the principle of minimizing the UGV waypoints, suitable viewpoints are selected from the viewpoint space based on metrics of image quality. In order to extend the coverage range of the onboard detection equipment, the UGV is usually equipped with an automatic lifting device, which leads to a higher center of gravity of the UGV, increasing the risk of tilting during motion. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly limit the curvature of the UGV’s path. Considering this, based on the waypoints of the UGV, a coverage path satisfying constraints including curvature and obstacle avoidance is further planned using the Bezier curve method. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through simulations.