{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T23:47:48Z","timestamp":1770767268753,"version":"3.50.0"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,15]],"date-time":"2021-01-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1610668800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Different practical applications have emerged in the last few years, requiring periodic and detailed inspections to verify possible structural changes. Inspections using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) should minimize flight time due to battery time restrictions and identify the terrain\u2019s topographic features. In this sense, Coverage Path Planning (CPP) aims at finding the best path to coverage of a determined area respecting the operation\u2019s restrictions. Photometric information from the terrain is used to create routes or even refine paths already created. Therefore, this research\u2019s main contribution is developing a methodology that uses a metaheuristic algorithm based on point cloud data to inspect slope and dams structures. The technique was applied in a simulated and real scenario to verify its effectiveness. The results showed an increasing 3D reconstructions\u2019 quality observing optimizing photometric and mission time criteria.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21020570","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,20]],"date-time":"2021-01-20T03:34:25Z","timestamp":1611113665000},"page":"570","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":46,"title":["A Framework for Coverage Path Planning Optimization Based on Point Cloud for Structural Inspection"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8903-5271","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Iago Z.","family":"Biundini","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora 36036-900, Brazil"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6916-700X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Milena F.","family":"Pinto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electronics Engineering, Federal Center for Technological Education of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 20271-110, Brazil"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8227-6462","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aurelio G.","family":"Melo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora 36036-900, Brazil"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9171-3089","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andre L. M.","family":"Marcato","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora 36036-900, Brazil"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2735-4792","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leonardo M.","family":"Hon\u00f3rio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora 36036-900, Brazil"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8645-0464","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria J. R.","family":"Aguiar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora 36036-900, Brazil"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Besada, J.A., Bergesio, L., Campa\u00f1a, I., Vaquero-Melchor, D., L\u00f3pez-Araquistain, J., Bernardos, A.M., and Casar, J.R. (2018). Drone mission definition and implementation for automated infrastructure inspection using airborne sensors. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18041170"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Silva, M.F., Lu\u00eds Lima, J., Reis, L.P., Sanfeliu, A., and Tardioli, D. (2020). Coverage Path Planning Optimization for Slopes and Dams Inspection. Robot 2019: Fourth Iberian Robotics Conference, Springer International Publishing.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-35990-4_55"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pinto, M.F., Marcato, A.L., Melo, A.G., Hon\u00f3rio, L.M., and Urdiales, C. (2019). A framework for analyzing fog-cloud computing cooperation applied to information processing of UAVs. Wirel. Commun. Mob. Comput., 2019.","DOI":"10.1155\/2019\/7497924"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pinto, M.F., Hon\u00f3rio, L.M., Marcato, A.L.M., Dantas, M.A.R., Melo, A.G., Capretz, M., and Urdiales, C. (2020). ARCog: An Aerial Robotics Cognitive Architecture. Robotica, 1\u201320.","DOI":"10.1017\/S0263574720000521"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"368","DOI":"10.1016\/j.trc.2019.11.003","article-title":"The multiple flying sidekicks traveling salesman problem: Parcel delivery with multiple drones","volume":"110","author":"Murray","year":"2020","journal-title":"Transp. Res. Part Emerg. Technol."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Madridano, \u00c1., Al-Kaff, A., Mart\u00edn, D., and Escalera, A. (2020). 3d trajectory planning method for uavs swarm in building emergencies. Sensors, 20.","DOI":"10.3390\/s20030642"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"424","DOI":"10.1002\/rob.20388","article-title":"Coverage path planning on three-dimensional terrain for arable farming","volume":"28","author":"Jin","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Field Robot."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cabreira, T.M., Brisolara, L.B., and Ferreira, P.R. (2019). Survey on coverage path planning with unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones, 3.","DOI":"10.3390\/drones3010004"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"125","DOI":"10.1007\/s10846-019-01010-4","article-title":"Energy-constrained multi-UAV coverage path planning for an aerial imagery mission using column generation","volume":"97","author":"Choi","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Intell. Robot. Syst."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113535","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2020.113535","article-title":"A Co-optimal Coverage Path Planning Method for Aerial Scanning of Complex Structures","volume":"158","author":"Shang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4774","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2020.3003886","article-title":"Coverage Path Planning With Track Spacing Adaptation for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles","volume":"5","author":"Yordanova","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kwon, B., and Thangavelautham, J. (2020, January 7\u201314). Autonomous Coverage Path Planning using Artificial Neural Tissue for Aerospace Applications. Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/AERO47225.2020.9172556"},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"173","article-title":"Route planning algorithm and verification based on UAV operation path angle in irregular area","volume":"31","author":"Xu","year":"2015","journal-title":"Trans. Chin. Soc. Agric. Eng."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Butler, Z.J., Rizzi, A.A., and Hollis, R.L. (1999, January 17). Contact sensor-based coverage of rectilinear environments. Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control Intelligent Systems and Semiotics (Cat. No. 99CH37014), Cambridge, MA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISIC.1999.796666"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1000","DOI":"10.1017\/S0263574719001206","article-title":"Hybrid Methodology for Path Planning and Computational Vision Applied to Autonomous Mission: A New Approach","volume":"38","author":"Coelho","year":"2020","journal-title":"Robotica"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"337","DOI":"10.1007\/s40313-019-00453-2","article-title":"Mobile robot localization based on the novel leader-based bat algorithm","volume":"30","author":"Neto","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Control. Autom. Electr. Syst."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, R., Wang, S., Xiao, E., Jindal, K., Yuan, W., and Feng, C. (2019). Realtime soft robot 3d proprioception via deep vision-based sensing. arXiv.","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2020.2975709"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"68","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8667.2012.00774.x","article-title":"Improved floodplain delineation method using high-density LiDAR data","volume":"28","author":"Deshpande","year":"2013","journal-title":"Comput.-Aided Civ. Infrastruct. Eng."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"519","DOI":"10.1109\/CVPR.2006.19","article-title":"A comparison and evaluation of multi-view stereo reconstruction algorithms","volume":"Volume 1","author":"Seitz","year":"2006","journal-title":"Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR\u201906)"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1111\/mice.12063","article-title":"A sparsity-inducing optimization-based algorithm for planar patches extraction from noisy point-cloud data","volume":"30","author":"Zhang","year":"2015","journal-title":"Comput.-Aided Civ. Infrastruct. Eng."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Guo, Y., Wang, H., Hu, Q., Liu, H., Liu, L., and Bennamoun, M. (2020). Deep learning for 3d point clouds: A survey. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell.","DOI":"10.1109\/TPAMI.2020.3005434"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"306","DOI":"10.1016\/j.aei.2019.02.007","article-title":"Applications of 3D point cloud data in the construction industry: A fifteen-year review from 2004 to 2018","volume":"39","author":"Wang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Adv. Eng. Inform."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.5194\/isprs-annals-IV-2-W5-29-2019","article-title":"Damage detection on building fa\u00e7ades using multi-temporal aerial oblique imagery","volume":"4","author":"Duarte","year":"2019","journal-title":"ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"318","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ins.2018.11.045","article-title":"An efficient approach to 3D path planning","volume":"478","author":"Han","year":"2019","journal-title":"Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhou, Q., and Gao, S.s. (2019). 3D UAV Path Planning Using Global-Best Brain Storm Optimization Algorithm and Artificial Potential Field. International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-27532-7_66"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, S., and Zhang, R. (2020). Radio map based 3d path planning for cellular-connected UAV. IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun.","DOI":"10.1109\/GLOBECOM38437.2019.9013177"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"P\u00e9rez-Hurtado, I., Mart\u00ednez-del Amor, M.\u00c1., Zhang, G., Neri, F., and P\u00e9rez-Jim\u00e9nez, M.J. (2020). A membrane parallel rapidly-exploring random tree algorithm for robotic motion planning. Integr. Comput.-Aided Eng., 1\u201318.","DOI":"10.3233\/ICA-190616"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Blasi, L., D\u2019Amato, E., Mattei, M., and Notaro, I. (2020). Path Planning and Real-Time Collision Avoidance Based on the Essential Visibility Graph. Appl. Sci., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/app10165613"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Amarat, S.B., and Zong, P. (2019). 3D path planning, routing algorithms and routing protocols for unmanned air vehicles: A review. Aircr. Eng. Aerosp. Technol.","DOI":"10.1108\/AEAT-01-2019-0023"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1023\/A:1016639210559","article-title":"Coverage for robotics\u2013a survey of recent results","volume":"31","author":"Choset","year":"2001","journal-title":"Ann. Math. Artif. Intell."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mescheder, L., Oechsle, M., Niemeyer, M., Nowozin, S., and Geiger, A. (2019, January 16). Occupancy networks: Learning 3d reconstruction in function space. Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Long Beach, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/CVPR.2019.00459"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57539","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2019.2914150","article-title":"RealPoint3D: An efficient generation network for 3D object reconstruction from a single image","volume":"7","author":"Zhang","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rahman, F., and Farrell, J.A. (2019, January 19\u201321). Earth-Centered Earth-Fixed (ECEF) Vehicle State Estimation Performance. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Hong Kong, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/CCTA.2019.8920628"},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Kern, J.W., Ferro, P., Nisita, F.J., and Laube, R.J. (2013). System and Method with Automatic Radius Crossing Notification for Global Positioning System (GPS) Tracker. (10,448,196), US Patent."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Hofmann-Wellenhof, B., Lichtenegger, H., and Collins, J. (2012). Global Positioning System: Theory and Practice, Springer Science & Business Media."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"124626","DOI":"10.1016\/j.amc.2019.124626","article-title":"QuickhullDisk: A faster convex hull algorithm for disks","volume":"363","author":"Nguyen","year":"2019","journal-title":"Appl. Math. Comput."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"479","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2018.08.258","article-title":"Computing concave hull with closed curve smoothing: Performance, concaveness measure and applications","volume":"136","author":"Kalinina","year":"2018","journal-title":"Procedia Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/2213-7459-2-2","article-title":"Photogrammetric error sources and impacts on modeling and surveying in construction engineering applications","volume":"2","author":"Dai","year":"2014","journal-title":"Vis. Eng."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10042","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70810042","article-title":"Scanning Photogrammetry for Measuring Large Targets in Close Range","volume":"7","author":"Huang","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112972","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2019.112972","article-title":"A guided population archive whale optimization algorithm for solving multiobjective optimization problems","volume":"141","author":"Got","year":"2020","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"100630","DOI":"10.1016\/j.swevo.2019.100630","article-title":"Investigating the equivalence between PBI and AASF scalarization for multi-objective optimization","volume":"53","author":"Singh","year":"2020","journal-title":"Swarm Evol. Comput."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"193","DOI":"10.1109\/TEVC.2019.2909744","article-title":"A review of evolutionary multimodal multiobjective optimization","volume":"24","author":"Tanabe","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1028","DOI":"10.1016\/j.swevo.2018.10.016","article-title":"Multimodal multiobjective optimization with differential evolution","volume":"44","author":"Liang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Swarm Evol. Comput."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101780","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scs.2019.101780","article-title":"A novel energy-economic-environmental multi-criteria decision-making in the optimization of a hybrid renewable system","volume":"52","author":"Mazzeo","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sustain. Cities Soc."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yazdani, M., Zarate, P., Zavadskas, E.K., and Turskis, Z. (2019). A Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) method for multi-criteria decision-making problems. Manag. Decis.","DOI":"10.1108\/MD-05-2017-0458"},{"key":"ref_46","first-page":"44","article-title":"Holland. genetic algorithms","volume":"267","author":"John","year":"1992","journal-title":"Sci. Am."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1942","DOI":"10.1109\/ICNN.1995.488968","article-title":"Particle swarm optimization","volume":"Volume 4","author":"Kennedy","year":"1995","journal-title":"Proceedings of the ICNN\u201995-International Conference on Neural Networks"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yang, X.S. (2010). A new metaheuristic bat-inspired algorithm. Nature Inspired Cooperative Strategies for Optimization (NICSO 2010), Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-12538-6_6"},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"28","DOI":"10.1109\/MCI.2006.329691","article-title":"Ant colony optimization","volume":"1","author":"Dorigo","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Comput. Intell. Mag."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kim, J.U., and Ro, Y.M. (2019, January 22\u201325). Attentive Layer Separation for Object Classification and Object Localization in Object Detection. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Taipei, Taiwan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICIP.2019.8803439"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kanimozhi, S., Gayathri, G., and Mala, T. (2019, January 21\u201323). Multiple Real-time object identification using Single shot Multi-Box detection. Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Data Science (ICCIDS), Chennai, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCIDS.2019.8862041"},{"key":"ref_52","first-page":"10","article-title":"The many faces of simulation: Use cases for a general purpose simulator","volume":"13","author":"Koenig","year":"2013","journal-title":"Proc. ICRA"},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Meyer, J., Sendobry, A., Kohlbrecher, S., Klingauf, U., and von Stryk, O. (2012, January 5). Comprehensive Simulation of Quadrotor UAVs using ROS and Gazebo. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Simulation, Modeling and Programming for Autonomous Robots (SIMPAR), Tsukuba, Japan.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-34327-8_36"},{"key":"ref_54","unstructured":"Michalewicz, Z., and Fogel, D.B. (2013). How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics, Springer Science & Business Media."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/21\/2\/570\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T05:11:24Z","timestamp":1760159484000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/21\/2\/570"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,15]]},"references-count":54,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1]]}},"alternative-id":["s21020570"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s21020570","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,15]]}}}