A modified Dubins method for optimal path planning of a Miniature Air Vehicle converging to a straight line path

This paper presents a Dubins model based strategy to determine the optimal path of a miniature air vehicle (MAV), constrained by a bounded turning rate, that would enable it to fly along a given straight line, starting from an arbitrary initial position and orientation. The method is then extended to meet the same objective in the presence of wind which has a magnitude comparable to the speed of the MAV. We use a modification of the Dubins´ path method to obtain the complete optimal solution to this problem in all its generality.