Path-Planning on a Spherical Surface with Disturbances and Exclusion Zones

An algorithm is presented for path-planning in a non-uniform spheroid mesh containing exclusion zones, vector and scalar fields. The mesh models physical environments such as ocean regions, together with a variety of environmental phenomena such as wind, current and ice conditions which impact on routing decisions. The path-planning method can be used to optimise the travel time of journeys between points in the mesh. We provide the algorithmic details and the mathematical foundations of the algorithms. To demonstrate that the method has basic desirable properties, we show that long paths in unconstrained regions of the mesh closely approximate great circle arcs. We go on to show that the method path-plans efficiently in environments with complex interacting conditions.