Garrido Bullón, Luis SantiagoMuñoz Mendi, JavierLópez Palomino, BlancaQuevedo Vallejo, FernandoMonje Micharet, Concepción AliciaMoreno Lorente, Luis Enrique2024-02-062024-02-062023-02-01Garrido, S., Muñoz, J., López, B., Quevedo, F., Monje, C. A., & Moreno, L. (2023). Fast marching techniques for teaming UAV’s applications in complex terrain. Drones, 7(2), 84.2504-446Xhttps://hdl.handle.net/10016/39859In this paper, we present a study on coverage missions carried out by UAV formations in 3D environments. These missions are designed to be applied in tracking and search and rescue missions, especially in the case of accidents. In this manner, the presented method focuses on the path planning stage, the objective of which is to compute a convenient trajectory to completely cover a certain area in a determined environment. The methodology followed uses a Gaussian mixture to approximate a probability of containment distribution along with the Fast Marching Square (FM2) as path planner. The Gaussians permit to define a zigzag trajectory that optimizes the path. Next, a first 2D geometric path perpendicular to the Voronoi diagram of the Gaussian distribution is calculated, obtained by skeletonization. To this path, the height above the ground is added plus the desired flight height to make it 3D. Finally, the FM2 method for formations is applied to make the path smooth and safe enough to be followed by UAVs. The simulation experiments show that the proposed method achieves good results for the zigzag path in terms of smoothness, safety and distance to cover the desired area through the formation of UAVs.18eng© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Atribución 3.0 EspañaUAVFormationsFast marching methodGaussian mixturesSearch and rescueresearch articleRobótica e Informática Industrialhttps://doi.org/10.3390/drones7020084open access1218Drones7AR/0000032012