Three-Dimensional Mountain Complex Terrain and Heterogeneous Multi-UAV Cooperative Combat Mission Planning

Most research regarding multi-target, multi-base, and multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) coordinated combat mission planning faces the problems of ignoring heterogeneous UAVs, as well as poor task allocation and trajectory planning coupling. To solve these problems, based on air maneuver combat mission backgrounds, the present paper provided a heterogeneous multi-UAV cooperative mission planning method in the complex three-dimensional (3D) mountain environment. In the present paper, based on the Life-cycle Swarm Optimization (LSO) algorithm, varying the number of individuals in the population was utilized to improve the algorithm and further combined with the Rapidly exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm to obtain an optimized path. Then, an improved algorithm was utilized for task allocation and trajectory optimization, and the number and speed of drones dispatched by each base were determined regarding time coordination. Finally, a simulation experiment was conducted. Numerical simulation results showed that the following algorithm was compared with the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) when considering radar threats and solid obstacle areas. This has good approximation and high convergence accuracy, and it was effectively utilized in the planning of UAV collaborative missions in 3D complex terrain environments.