A strategy of multi-UAV cooperative path planning based on CCPSO

Multi-UAV cooperative formation flying has significant advantages in broadening the scope of UAV operations and improving combat effectiveness. How to realize the cooperative path planning of multi-UAV is an open issue. In order to solve the search performance degradation as dimension increases, a strategy of multi-UAV cooperative path planning based on Cooperative Coevolution Particle Swarm Optimization (CCPSO) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the initial Dubins path is generated for each UAV in the formation, of which the longest one is selected as the reference path. Intermediate waypoints are designed to modify the initial paths to avoid collisions with obstacles. Then, CCPSO algorithm is applied to optimize path parameters and adjust the path length to be equal to the reference path to ensure time coordination. Collision avoidance between UAVs is achieved in the collaborative evaluation phase. Finally, an formation rendezvous example and comparison with CCGA are given to explain the validity and excellent search ability of the proposed method.