Three-Dimensional Dubins-Path-Guided Continuous Curvature Path Smoothing

This paper presents an efficient three-dimensional (3D) Dubins path design and a new continuous curvature path-smoothing algorithm. The proposed 3D Dubins path is a simple extension of the 2D path and serves as a reference path generator to guide the proposed smoothing algorithm. In the smoothing algorithm, the reference path is approximated by several cubic Bezier curves to generate a parametric path that simultaneously satisfies curvature continuity and maximum curvature requirements. The algorithm also provides a criterion to select a required number of Bezier curves to strictly meet the maximum curvature constraint. Therefore, our algorithm can be used for 3D path-following applications in many areas such as aerospace and robotics. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed algorithm produces a continuous curvature path that passes through all waypoints with a slight increase in path length compared with the original 3D Dubins reference path.