A Butterfly Algorithm That Combines Chaos Mapping and Fused Particle Swarm Optimization for UAV Path Planning

Effective path planning is essential for autonomous drone flight to enhance task efficiency. Many researchers have applied swarm intelligence algorithms to drone path planning. For instance, the traditional Butterfly Optimization Algorithm (BOA) has been used for this purpose. However, traditional BOA faces challenges such as slow convergence and susceptibility to being trapped in local optima. An Improved Butterfly Optimization Algorithm (IBOA) has been developed to identify optimal routes to address these limitations. Initially, ICMIC mapping is utilized to establish the butterfly community, enhancing the initial population’s diversity and preventing premature algorithm convergence. Following this, a population reset strategy is introduced, replacing weaker individuals over a specified number of iterations while maintaining a constant population size. This strategy enhances the algorithm’s ability to avoid local optima and increases its robustness. Additionally, characteristics of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm are integrated to enhance the butterfly’s location update mechanism, accelerating the algorithm’s convergence rate. To evaluate the performance of the IBOA algorithm, this study designed a CEC2020 function test experiment and compared it with several swarm intelligence algorithms. The results showed that IBOA achieved the best performance in 70% of the function tests, outperforming 75% of the other algorithms. In the path planning experiments within a simulated environment, IBOA quickly converged to the optimal path, and the paths it planned were the shortest and safest compared to those generated by other algorithms.