A Physics-Informed Neural Network Approach for UAV Path Planning in Dynamic Environments

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Zhang, Shuning
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhang, Shuning
author_facet Zhang, Shuning
contents Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in dynamic wind fields must generate safe and energy-efficient trajectories under physical and environmental constraints. Traditional planners, such as A* and kinodynamic RRT*, often yield suboptimal or non-smooth paths due to discretization and sampling limitations. This paper presents a physics-informed neural network (PINN) framework that embeds UAV dynamics, wind disturbances, and obstacle avoidance directly into the learning process. Without requiring supervised data, the PINN learns dynamically feasible and collision-free trajectories by minimizing physical residuals and risk-aware objectives. Comparative simulations show that the proposed method outperforms A* and Kino-RRT* in control energy, smoothness, and safety margin, while maintaining similar flight efficiency. The results highlight the potential of physics-informed learning to unify model-based and data-driven planning, providing a scalable and physically consistent framework for UAV trajectory optimization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_21874
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Physics-Informed Neural Network Approach for UAV Path Planning in Dynamic Environments
Zhang, Shuning
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in dynamic wind fields must generate safe and energy-efficient trajectories under physical and environmental constraints. Traditional planners, such as A* and kinodynamic RRT*, often yield suboptimal or non-smooth paths due to discretization and sampling limitations. This paper presents a physics-informed neural network (PINN) framework that embeds UAV dynamics, wind disturbances, and obstacle avoidance directly into the learning process. Without requiring supervised data, the PINN learns dynamically feasible and collision-free trajectories by minimizing physical residuals and risk-aware objectives. Comparative simulations show that the proposed method outperforms A* and Kino-RRT* in control energy, smoothness, and safety margin, while maintaining similar flight efficiency. The results highlight the potential of physics-informed learning to unify model-based and data-driven planning, providing a scalable and physically consistent framework for UAV trajectory optimization.
title A Physics-Informed Neural Network Approach for UAV Path Planning in Dynamic Environments
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21874