A Layered Essential Visibility Graph Approach for Energy-Efficient UAV 3D Path Planning

This paper presents a visibility-based path planning algorithm for energy-constrained unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Our algorithm constructs a layered essential visibility graph that accounts for environmental conditions, followed by the development of a modified heuristic function that balances time and energy consumption. The energy consumption model is formulated based on the dynamic characteristics of the UAV. Simulations in various environmental complexities demonstrate that the proposed path planning algorithm can efficiently generate paths with optimal energy and time consumption in a short computational period.