Narrowed Regions-based Bidirectional Path Planning Using RRT-Connect for Single Aircraft Missions

Abstract

Fighter aircraft, the emblem of modern military aviation, have decisively shaped the landscape of contemporary warfare. These machines are purpose-built and equipped to carry out a variety of missions. Mission planning is a common practice, usually done before the aircraft takes off. However, the volatile nature of warfare poses a major challenge to the precise execution of preplanned missions. If the established flight path needs to be adjusted during a mission, a new path must be created and the mission completed using the newly derived flight path. In this study, we present a novel approach to path planning using a modified RRT connect algorithm. By considering the nearest nodes in two trees starting from Tinit and Tgoal, we use a constrained sampling strategy within a bounded environment. This iterative process creates a tree between the current and target locations and a path is extracted using the A* algorithm. The proposed method aims to omit samples in regions where the passage of the aircraft is infeasible or costly, resulting in a smoother trajectory. Experiments in different scenarios have shown that the method consistently delivers smooth routes. This research demonstrates the potential of our approach to improve the adaptability and performance of mission-critical aircraft in dynamic environments. © 2024 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.