How to use it

To use the planner, run covplan.pathplan(input_file, params). It returns a list of coordinates that compose a path for complete coverage. In the input file, describe the boundaries of the AoI using its lat-lon coordinates in the following format:

  lat1  lon1
  lat2  lon2
  ...
  lat1  lon1
  NaN  NaN

The region of interest, or obstacles/forbidden regions can be described by coordinates on its boundaries which appropriately represents the region in consideration. Separate different polygons by including a NaN NaN at the end. Also ensure that the coordinates of the polygon are described clockwise, and counter-clockwise for any obstacles and forbidden regions. covplan.find_min(input_file, params) runs a single objective optimizer to find the driving angle that minimizes the trajectory length for a given AoI and the specified parameters.

API Reference

covplan.pathplan(params)

This function returns the list of waypoint coordinates that together compose the trajectory that covers the area. Further information about what each parameter indicates can be found in the software description.

Parameter	Type	Description
input_file	text file	Text file containting list of coordinates describing the boundaries.
width	float	The distance between parallel tracks aka operating width in meters.
num_hd	int	Number of boundary margins or headland polygons
theta	float	The driving or heading angle of the parallel tracks in degrees ( 0<theta <=180)
num_clusters	int	Number of sections into which the AoI is divided.
radius	string	The radius of the Dubins curves to be used.
visualize	Boolean	True if the trajectory is to be visualized.

covplan.find_min(params)

This function returns the angle that minimizes the trajectory length for a chosen set of parameters.

Parameter	Type	Description
input_file	text file	Text file containting list of coordinates describing the boundaries.
width	float	The distance between parallel tracks aka operating width.
num_hd	int	Number of boundary margins or headland polygons
num_clusters	int	Number of sections into which the AoI is divided.
radius	string	The radius of the Dubins curves to be used.
verbose	Boolean	True if the distance and minimum angle is to be printed.

Example usage

Here is an example code snippet using this API

import covplan

def main():
    n_clusters=4    #number of sections
    r=2 #radius for Dubins curves
    input_file='sample_area.txt' #location of the input file containing coordinates of the field
    width = 10  #distance between tracks
    driving_angle=90    #angle wrt X-axis in degrees
    no_hd=0 #number of margins around boundary (each with distance=0.5*width) if needed, otherwise 0

    op=covplan.pathplan(input_file,num_hd=no_hd,width=width,theta=driving_angle,num_clusters=n_clusters,radius=r,visualize=False) # returns list of waypoint coordinates composing full trajectory for coverage
    print('The trajectory for full coverage consists of the following waypoints:',op)

    min=covplan.find_min(input_file,width=width,num_hd=no_hd,num_clusters=n_clusters,radius=r,verbose=True)  # runs optimizer and returns angle corresponding to minimum path length
    # print('Angle for trajectory with minimum length:', min)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()