A Generalized Multi-Objective Framework for UAV Mission Planning

We present a novel framework for mission/trajectory planning of electrically powered UAVs by formulating a multiobjective multi-constraints optimization problem. The problem considers a number of objectives such as, flight time, harshness and aging under maximum available energy, peak power, maximum allowed time and initial-final target state. In particular, we show that the power demand is related to the angular velocity, as well as we introduce the concept of harshness (inverse of trajectory smoothness), and aging of the mechanical structure induced by the use or by environmental effects. The multiobjective optimization problem (MOP) is solved by introducing a new decomposition approach where a number of scalar optimization sub-problems are jointly solved using an evolutionary algorithm. Numerical results are reported to both verify performance and mission feasibility as well as to determine computation time which is a key element to be considered for real time applications.