Enhancing safe flight corridors formation for UAVs by rectifying path planning algorithms through releasing proximity constraints

Abstract

This article proposes a novel method for rectifying solutions resulting from path planning algorithms like jump point search algorithm (JPS) in a cluttered environment, with the purpose to readjust waypoints occurring at the proximity of obstacles. In order to provide an area free of obstacles for generating a trajectory inside it, a safe flight corridor (SFC) is formed which imposes a set of linear inequality constraints on the trajectory planning. The first step for generating SFC is to form “inflatable” ellipsoids around the path segments created by the path planning algorithm. Indeed, in the stage of forming flight corridors, narrow ellipsoids are prone to be created at points of the path too close to the obstacles that will result in impractical corridors. As a solution, a virtual force field is applied that influences the points of the path, modifying its shape while staying close to optimal path. The results are presented for different obstacle shapes and compared with another path modification method. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025.