Chinese Journal of Ship Research, Volume. 20, Issue 4, 286(2025)

Underwater full coverage path planning in unknown waters based on random search two-stage planning model algorithm

Zhaojie WANG1,2, Ming MAO3, Dingshan LI1,2, Mu SUN1,2, Jinhui XIONG1,2, Feng GAO4, Qiaozhu ZHAI4, He ZHANG1,2, and Hao LIU1,2
Author Affiliations
  • 1China Ship Research and Development Academy, Beijing 100192, China
  • 2Future Development Research Center of China State Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Beijing 100192, China
  • 3Naval Petty Officer Academy of PLA, Bengbu 233010, China
  • 4Faculty of Electronic and Information, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
  • show less

    Objective

    Aiming at typical application scenarios in which underwater vehicles perform search tasks such as preemptive submarine harassment and patrol hunting in a target sea area, this paper explores methods for achieving efficient and seamless coverage search in unknown waters under the conditions of no prior information and being constrained by detection capabilities.

    Method

    By establishing a mathematical model for search path planning in unknown waters and designing a heuristic solution method based on two-stage planning for the random search strategy, the efficiency results of various search strategies in different shaped waters are obtained.

    Results

    In rectangular waters, parallel search or spiral search has the highest efficiency, and zigzag search strategy has the lowest efficiency; in circular waters, spiral search has the highest efficiency; in irregular waters, parallel search, zigzag search and spiral search cannot be directly applied, and random search can find near-optimal solutions without approximating the waters.

    Conclusions

    The established mathematical model satisfies conditions such as "full coverage of unknown waters" and "completing the search in the shortest time". The designed random search two-stage planning model algorithm can plan a random search route that meets the full coverage requirements for any irregularly connected waters without discretizing the physical space of the battlefield, constraints, and decision variables.

    Keywords
    Tools

    Get Citation

    Copy Citation Text

    Zhaojie WANG, Ming MAO, Dingshan LI, Mu SUN, Jinhui XIONG, Feng GAO, Qiaozhu ZHAI, He ZHANG, Hao LIU. Underwater full coverage path planning in unknown waters based on random search two-stage planning model algorithm[J]. Chinese Journal of Ship Research, 2025, 20(4): 286

    Download Citation

    EndNote(RIS)BibTexPlain Text
    Save article for my favorites
    Paper Information

    Category: Weapon, Electronic and Information System

    Received: Nov. 2, 2023

    Accepted: Mar. 29, 2024

    Published Online: Sep. 11, 2025

    The Author Email:

    DOI:10.19693/j.issn.1673-3185.03633

    Topics