Design of the fruit fly optimization algorithm based path planner for UAV in 3D environments

This paper designs a novel path planner for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the three-dimensional terrain environment using the fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA). The UAV path planning problem is formulated as an optimization problem, using the B-Spline curve to represent flight paths. The cost function adopting herein to evaluate the flight path contains multiple optimization indexes and performance constraints. Detailed process of the FOA-based path planner is proposed to find the optimal path with the minimum cost function value. Numerical simulations are carried out and the results show that FOA is the powerful optimization technique in solving UAV path planning problem.