A new approach in UAV path planning using Bezier-Dubins continuous curvature path

Abstract

This paper presents continuous curvature paths for unmanned vehicles such as robots and unmanned aerial vehicles. The importance of these paths is that both upper-bounded curvature and upper-bounded curvature derivatives are included in the path. The approach is based on replacement of the Dubins line with the quintic PH Bezier curves by computing a shape parameter by considering the kinematic constraints of the path. Since these paths are Dubins-based paths, their lengths are close to the minimum length. The effectiveness and sub-optimality of the proposed paths are demonstrated through fully nonlinear simulation. © 2015 Institution of Mechanical Engineers.