Flight path planning using GA and fuzzy logic considering communication constraints

In this paper, we address an offline path planning algorithm for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The planned path meets some objectives such as minimum distance, collision free and maximum power of communication system, while there are some no-fly zones in the area. The optimality in the communication system is the main priority, because all the control commands and information are transmitted through this link. The final path is obtained considering criteria for communications constraints and the planning process guaranties a better connectivity of the communication between UAV and transmitters. The information of radio signal propagation (RSP) of different transmitters is computed by SPLAT software with respect to each terrain. Genetic algorithm is employed to plana path on latitude and longitude plane. This algorithm is tested in a real environment three-dimensional terrain in different strategy of forbidden regions and target area. The proposed algorithm is implemented in MATLAB and the satisfactory simulation results are illustrated.