A Review of Space Exploration and Trajectory Optimization Techniques for Autonomous Systems: Comprehensive Analysis and Future Directions

Autonomous systems have achieved great success over the last couple of decades. They have bring the revolutionary change in the world, either its ground vehicles, aerial systems or underground vehicles. Number of research papers have been written on the importance of autonomous systems and their applications in different field. Keeping in view the pattern of research done by authors, an effort has been made to provide a single platform for readers to familiarize themselves with applications involved in terrestrial, aerial and undersea systems along with different sets of dimensions involved in achieving these applications. Therefore, the article provides a summary of the main communication methods used by terrestrial, aerial, and undersea space research vehicles. In addition to providing an exhaustive summary of the difficulties encountered in trajectory planning, space exploration, optimization, and other areas, the research also presents optimization methods applicable to aerial, undersea, and terrestrial applications. As the literature lacks extensive studies like this one, hence an effort has been made to fill the gap for readers interested in path design. This study tackles numerical, bioinspired, and hybrid techniques for each of the dimensions given. With this study, we attempted to provide a single repository for a plethora of research on autonomous land vehicles, their trajectory optimization, as well as research on aerial and undersea vehicles. The article ends with the most practical directions for future research.