exportWaypointsPlan

R2026b

Export waypoints to file

Since R2023a

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    Syntax

    exportWaypointsPlan(planner,solninfo,filename)
    exportWaypointsPlan(___,ReferenceFrame=frame)

    Description

    exportWaypointsPlan(planner,solninfo,filename) uses solution information solninfo to export the waypoints and ground control system information to the file filename. You can use filename to deploy waypoints to a UAV using QGroundControl, a mission planner, or any other ground control software.

    exportWaypointsPlan(___,ReferenceFrame=frame) exports the waypoints in the reference frame frame.

    example

    Examples

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    Open Live Script

    This example shows how to plan a coverage path for a region in local coordinates and compares the results of using the exhaustive solver with the results of using the minimum traversal solver.

    Define the vertices for a coverage space. This cross-shaped region creates multiple sub-regions that the solvers must visit in sequence.

    area = [5 0; 5 15; 0 15; 0 25; 5 25; 5 40; 15 40; 15 25; 20 25; 20 40; ...
        30 40; 30 25; 35 25; 35 15; 30 15; 30 0; 20 0; 20 15; 15 15; 15 0];

    Because the vertices define a concave polygon and the coverage planner requires convex polygons, decompose the polygon into convex polygons. Then, create a coverage space with the polygons from the decomposition.

    polygons = coverageDecomposition(area);
centroids = cellfun(@(p) mean(p(:,1)),polygons);
[~,sortIdx] = sort(centroids);
polygons = polygons(sortIdx);
cs = uavCoverageSpace(Polygons=polygons);

    Define the takeoff and landing positions. Then, show the coverage space and plot the takeoff and landing positions.

    takeoff = [-5 20 0];
landing = [40 20 0];
show(cs);
exampleHelperPlotTakeoffLandingLegend(takeoff,landing)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 12 objects of type polygon, text, scatter. These objects represent Takeoff, Landing.

    Create a coverage planner with the exhaustive solver algorithm and another coverage planner with a minimum traversal solver algorithm.

    The exhaustive solver iterates through all permutations of sweep options to minimize the connection distance between regions. This makes it better suited for smaller or separated regions. The minimum traversal solver uses a recursive traversal through a graph of adjacent polygons, making it faster and better suited for interconnected regions.

    cpeExh = uavCoveragePlanner(cs,Solver="Exhaustive");
cpMin = uavCoveragePlanner(cs,Solver="MinTraversal");

    Plan with both solver algorithms using the same takeoff and landing positions.

    [wptsExh,solnExh] = plan(cpeExh,takeoff,landing);
[wptsMin,solnMin] = plan(cpMin,takeoff,landing);

    Show the planned path for both the exhaustive and the minimum traversal algorithms.

    figure
show(cs);
title("Exhaustive Solver Algorithm")
exampleHelperPlotTakeoffLandingLegend(takeoff,landing,wptsExh)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title Exhaustive Solver Algorithm contains 13 objects of type polygon, text, scatter, line. These objects represent Takeoff, Landing, Path.

    figure
show(cs);
title("Minimum Traversal Solver Algorithm")
exampleHelperPlotTakeoffLandingLegend(takeoff,landing,wptsMin)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title Minimum Traversal Solver Algorithm contains 13 objects of type polygon, text, scatter, line. These objects represent Takeoff, Landing, Path.

    Compare the visiting sequences chosen by each solver. The exhaustive solver finds the globally optimal ordering by evaluating all permutations, while the minimum traversal solver prioritizes traversing adjacent polygons and flies to the nearest unvisited polygon when no adjacent ones remain.

    disp("Exhaustive visiting sequence: " + mat2str(solnExh.VisitingSequence))
    Exhaustive visiting sequence: [1 2 4 5 3]

    disp("MinTraversal visiting sequence: " + mat2str(solnMin.VisitingSequence))
    MinTraversal visiting sequence: [1 2 3 4 5]

    Export the waypoints from the exhaustive solver to a .waypoints file with the reference frame set to north-east-down.

    exportWaypointsPlan(cpeExh,solnExh,"coveragepath.waypoints",ReferenceFrame="NED")

    Input Arguments

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    Coverage path planner, specified as a uavCoveragePlanner object.

    Solution plan, specified as a structure containing these fields:

    • VisitingSequence — N-element row vector denoting the order of visitation of polygons, where N is the total number of polygons in the coverage space. For example, [2 1 3] specifies that the UAV should visit polygon 2 first, polygon 1 second, and polygon 3 last.

    • SweepPattern — N-element row vector of integers denoting the sweep pattern for each polygon, where N is the total number of polygons in the coverage space. Each element is an integer in the range [1, 4] that indicates a sweep pattern:

      • 1 — Forward sweep pattern

      • 2 — Counter-clockwise sweep pattern

      • 3 — Reverse sweep pattern

      • 4 — Reverse counter-clockwise sweep pattern

      For example, [3 1 2] specifies that the UAV should use the reverse sweep pattern for polygon 1, the forward sweep pattern for polygon 2, and the counter-clockwise sweep pattern for polygon 3.

    • TransitionCost — Euclidean distance cost for transitioning between polygons including takeoff and landing distance.

    • Takeoff — Takeoff location, specified as a three-element row vector in LLA format.

    • Landing — Landing location, specified as a three-element row vector in LLA format.

    Use the plan function to get this structure.

    File name to export information to, specified as a character vector or string scalar. Specify the format of the file by ending the character vector or string scalar with either ".txt" or ".waypoints". For more information, see MAVLink File Formats.

    Example: "waypointfile.txt"

    Data Types: char | string

    Reference frame to export waypoints to, specified as either "ENU" for east-north-up or "NED" for north-east-down.

    Data Types: char | string

    Extended Capabilities

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    Version History

    Introduced in R2023a

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    See Also

    Topics