Navigation path planning for autonomous aircraft - Voronoi diagram approach

The present technique for generating a search graph depicting topologically unique paths around mountain boundaries at constant altitudes involves a description of mountain boundaries as polygons; the search graph is then generated on the basis of a geometric construct. All nodes and arcs of the search graph are guaranteed to lie in free space, thereby ensuring an autonomous aircraft's avoidance of mountain obstacles. The solution path is generated by searching the graph for the optimal path from a start location to a finish location.