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Mechanical Engineering Commons

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Faculty Publications

2006

Computer Sciences

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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Learning Real-Time A* Path Planner For Unmanned Air Vehicle Target Sensing, Jason K. Howlett, Timothy W. Mclain, Michael A. Goodrich Mar 2006

Learning Real-Time A* Path Planner For Unmanned Air Vehicle Target Sensing, Jason K. Howlett, Timothy W. Mclain, Michael A. Goodrich

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a path planner for sensing closely-spaced targets from a fixed-wing unmanned air vehicle (UAV) having a specified sensor footprint. The planner is based on the learning real-time A* (LRTA*) search algorithm and produces dynamically feasible paths that accomplish the sensing objectives in the shortest possible distance. A tree of candidate paths that span the area of interest is created by assembling primitive turn and straight sections of a specified step size in a sequential fashion from the starting position of the UAV. An LRTA* search of the tree produces feasible paths any time during its execution and …