{"ID":2891367,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17519","arxiv_id":"2507.17519","title":"Terrain-Aware Adaptation for Two-Dimensional UAV Path Planners","abstract":"Multi-UAV Coverage Path Planning (mCPP) algorithms in popular commercial software typically treat a Region of Interest (RoI) only as a 2D plane, ignoring important3D structure characteristics. This leads to incomplete 3Dreconstructions, especially around occluded or vertical surfaces. In this paper, we propose a modular algorithm that can extend commercial two-dimensional path planners to facilitate terrain-aware planning by adjusting altitude and camera orientations. To demonstrate it, we extend the well-known DARP (Divide Areas for Optimal Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning) algorithm and produce DARP-3D. We present simulation results in multiple 3D environments and a real-world flight test using DJI hardware. Compared to baseline, our approach consistently captures improved 3D reconstructions, particularly in areas with significant vertical features. An open-source implementation of the algorithm is available here:https://github.com/konskara/TerraPlan","short_abstract":"Multi-UAV Coverage Path Planning (mCPP) algorithms in popular commercial software typically treat a Region of Interest (RoI) only as a 2D plane, ignoring important3D structure characteristics. This leads to incomplete 3Dreconstructions, especially around occluded or vertical surfaces. In this paper, we propose a modula...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17519","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.17519v2","authors":"[\"Kostas Karakontis\",\"Thanos Petsanis\",\"Athanasios Ch. Kapoutsis\",\"Pavlos Ch. Kapoutsis\",\"Elias B. Kosmatopoulos\"]","published":"2025-07-23T13:55:37Z","proceeding":"cs.RO","tasks":"[\"cs.RO\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false,"code_links":[{"ID":611873,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_id":2891367,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17519","paper_title":"Terrain-Aware Adaptation for Two-Dimensional UAV Path Planners","repo_url":"https://github.com/konskara/TerraPlan","is_official":false,"mentioned_in_paper":false,"mentioned_in_github":true,"github_stars":0}]}