Energy-efficient trochoidal path planning for unmanned aircraft under wind and performance constraints
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Reyner, Christian
Liem, Rhea P
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Fixed-wing unmanned aircraft are widely used for aerial mapping because they can acquire high-resolution data at relatively low cost, but maintaining both energy efficiency and image quality in the presence of wind and flight-performance limits remains challenging. In practice, operators introduce buffer regions and extended waypoints outside the area of interest to cope with deviations during turning, which increases flight distance and energy use; yet, this approach can still degrade image overlap near the boundary. This paper presents a path-planning framework that designs turning maneuvers compatible with bank-angle, stall-margin, and roll-rate constraints while aligning mapping lanes directly with the area of interest. The framework combines analytically structured turn patterns, an energy-based metric that accounts for increased aerodynamic load in banked flight, and a two-stage path-angle selection procedure that uses a fast, simplified model to guide a more detailed optimization. Simulation studies on both idealized and real survey geometries indicate that, within the considered maneuver families and assumptions, the proposed method can reduce the integrated aerodynamic energy metric and improve coverage compliance relative to a conventional path-following approach that relies on overshoot points.
Date Issued
2026-06-01
Date Acceptance
2026-05-27
Citation
Drones, 2026, 10 (6)
ISSN
2504-446X
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Drones
Volume
10
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
426
Date Publish Online
2026-06-01