A modified ant optimization algorithm for path planning of UCAV

A modified ant algorithms is presented as a fast and efficient approach for path planning of UCAV in this paper. To fleetly and reliably accomplish the air combat task, the path planning plays an extremely important role in the design of UCAV. The planned path can ensure UCAV reach the destination along the optimization path with the minimum probability of being found and the minimum energy consumed cost. Due to the big search space, the original ant algorithm can easily converge to local best solutions, and the search speed is slow. For avoiding these disadvantages, an improved ant algorithm is given and it is used to optimize path of UCAV. The modified ant algorithm can improve the speed of selection course, and decrease the probability of local best solutions. When UCAV meets the unexpected threat during its fly, it needs to revise the aforehand given path with re-planning technology. Based on the modified ant algorithm, a new method of three-dimensional real-time path re-planning is presented for UCAV. The simulation results show that this proposed path-planning scheme can obtain the optimization path which can be re-optimized when the unexpected threats appear. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.