Objective To overcome the dynamic constraints faced by an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in sea area coverage tasks, a coverage path planning scheme is constructed that considers the motion characteristics of USVs.

Methods For obstacle-free environments, polygon region coverage path planning is used to generate coverage paths. For obstructed or restricted environments, trapezoidal decomposition is adopted to decompose the target area into several sub-regions, and a genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the link path between each sub-region. Based on the predicted trajectory set of the USV maneuvering motion model, the turning path and its corresponding reference propeller speed are optimized, and the full coverage of the target sea area is achieved.

Results The simulation results show that the proposed method can achieve 100% path coverage in sea areas containing obstacles, with each turning path satisfying the maneuvering motion characteristics of the USV.

Conclusion The full-coverage path planning scheme proposed herein can generate a path that satisfies the maneuvering constraints of the USV, giving it obvious practical value in the fields of intelligent fishery, marine exploration, and marine communication relay.