A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on dimension exploration and discrepancy evolution for UAV path planning problem

Path planning is a crucial process for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and involves finding a path that is both short and safe. However, with the ever-increasing complexity of the environment, solving the UAV path-planning problem is challenging. Traditional path-planning methods cannot handle conflicting goals effectively, and existing objective methods lack targeted exploration mechanisms, resulting in unsatisfactory outcomes. By modeling the UAV path-planning problem via multi-objective optimization, this study designed a reasonable objective function composition for the model and considered obstacle avoidance as a hard constraint to satisfy the actual situation. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on dimensional exploration and discrepancy evolution (MOEA-2DE) is presented. In particular, MOEA-2DE utilizes dimensional perturbation to identify key dimensions to facilitate prior exploration and enhance the targeted search. An adaptive evolution strategy based on population discrepancy was employed to assess the evolution process, and various methods were adopted to balance convergence and diversity. The effectiveness of the MOEA-2DE was demonstrated through the design of two intricate terrain sets and comparisons with various classic and state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs), including those designed for UAV path planning across multiple metrics. The results verify the superiority of MOEA-2DE in terms of both convergence speed and final effect.