Terrain-Aware Adaptation for Two-Dimensional UAV Path Planners

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Karakontis, Kostas, Petsanis, Thanos, Kapoutsis, Athanasios Ch., Kapoutsis, Pavlos Ch., Kosmatopoulos, Elias B.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Karakontis, Kostas
Petsanis, Thanos
Kapoutsis, Athanasios Ch.
Kapoutsis, Pavlos Ch.
Kosmatopoulos, Elias B.
author_facet Karakontis, Kostas
Petsanis, Thanos
Kapoutsis, Athanasios Ch.
Kapoutsis, Pavlos Ch.
Kosmatopoulos, Elias B.
contents Multi-UAV Coverage Path Planning (mCPP) algorithms in popular commercial software typically treat a Region of Interest (RoI) only as a 2D plane, ignoring important3D structure characteristics. This leads to incomplete 3Dreconstructions, especially around occluded or vertical surfaces. In this paper, we propose a modular algorithm that can extend commercial two-dimensional path planners to facilitate terrain-aware planning by adjusting altitude and camera orientations. To demonstrate it, we extend the well-known DARP (Divide Areas for Optimal Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning) algorithm and produce DARP-3D. We present simulation results in multiple 3D environments and a real-world flight test using DJI hardware. Compared to baseline, our approach consistently captures improved 3D reconstructions, particularly in areas with significant vertical features. An open-source implementation of the algorithm is available here:https://github.com/konskara/TerraPlan
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_17519
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Terrain-Aware Adaptation for Two-Dimensional UAV Path Planners
Karakontis, Kostas
Petsanis, Thanos
Kapoutsis, Athanasios Ch.
Kapoutsis, Pavlos Ch.
Kosmatopoulos, Elias B.
Robotics
Multi-UAV Coverage Path Planning (mCPP) algorithms in popular commercial software typically treat a Region of Interest (RoI) only as a 2D plane, ignoring important3D structure characteristics. This leads to incomplete 3Dreconstructions, especially around occluded or vertical surfaces. In this paper, we propose a modular algorithm that can extend commercial two-dimensional path planners to facilitate terrain-aware planning by adjusting altitude and camera orientations. To demonstrate it, we extend the well-known DARP (Divide Areas for Optimal Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning) algorithm and produce DARP-3D. We present simulation results in multiple 3D environments and a real-world flight test using DJI hardware. Compared to baseline, our approach consistently captures improved 3D reconstructions, particularly in areas with significant vertical features. An open-source implementation of the algorithm is available here:https://github.com/konskara/TerraPlan
title Terrain-Aware Adaptation for Two-Dimensional UAV Path Planners
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17519