Lesson 34 — Optimal Path Planning

The threat picture is finished; the aircraft still has to cross it. Lay a graph over the map, price every leg by its length and its exposure, and Dijkstra returns the cheapest route exactly. Written as r = −ln(1−p) = Σλℓ, exposure adds the way Dijkstra adds, so the minimum-cost route is the maximum-survival route: make risk additive and the safest route is just the shortest path.

Reading

Optimal Path Planning

Routes as shortest paths, Dijkstra by hand and in MATLAB, why exposure is −ln(1−p), the weight sweep and the fuel limit, and why aspect makes the graph directed.

Flashcards

Review deck

Key terms and relations from the lesson, in a self-test deck.

Pre-flight

Pre-flight quiz

Five questions to work before class — anyone can be called to the board.

Slides

Lesson slides

The deck we work through in class — an HTML deck you can annotate in the browser, with a print view for saving a PDF.

Demo

Route Planner

Drag five SAM sites around a 400 × 300 km map, slide the weight from shortest to safest, sweep the Pareto front, and watch a fuel limit — and the aircraft's aspect — pick the route.