A Cell-Based Ocean-Current-Aware Travel-Time Cost Formulation for Offline 3D Path Planning of Underwater Vehicles

Underwater vehicles must operate efficiently within the limits of their onboard resources, and travel time is a primary operational objective for extending submerged endurance and range. Ocean currents significantly affect vehicle motion and travel time, either aiding or impeding propulsion depending on their direction and magnitude. This study proposes a cell-based, ocean-current-aware cost formulation for offline three-dimensional (3D) underwater path planning. A 3D grid map integrating ocean current vectors and underwater terrain is constructed, and rather than modifying a specific search algorithm, the proposed approach defines a travel-time-based cost at the cell-transition level by incorporating current effects into the vehicle’s effective velocity. Because the cost operates at the cell-transition level, it can be adopted by standard grid-search planners such as Dijkstra’s, A*, and D* without modification. Simulation experiments over the Tsushima–Jeju corridor using two measured current fields from the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency show that identical fields aided westbound transits (−2.4% and −4.4% travel time versus a current-unaware baseline) while opposing eastbound transits (+1.3% and +1.8%), with the planner exploiting favorable flows and detouring to mitigate adverse flows; these effects amplified roughly threefold as the vehicle speed decreased from 15 to 6 knots. A* and Dijkstra’s algorithms returned identical optimal costs under the same formulation, confirming planner independence. The results demonstrate that embedding measured current information at the map level yields realistic, condition-dependent, minimum-travel-time routes for offline mission planning.