Optimal three-dimensional path planning using visibility constraints

Distinguished Alumni Award Program author. Rear Admiral David H. Lewis, U.S. Navy, Commander, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR). (Presented 25 March 2015)We present an algorithm for finding optimal three- dimensional paths above polyhedral models of terrain. Airspace is modeled as irregularly-shaped regions of homogeneous probability-of-detection, with respect to one or more fixed observers. We plan paths by first finding an optimal set of contiguous visibility regions, then an optimal piecewise-linear flight path through this envelope, using Snell's Law to find locally-optimal maneuver points. The performance of our region-finding algorithm favorably compares with an alternate approach using regular cubic regions.http://archive.org/details/optimalthreedime00lew