Hybrid Cuckoo Search–Tabu Search Metaheuristic with Fuzzy Multi-Objective Optimization for UAV Path Planning in Urban Environments

Most UAV missions currently require visiting multiple checkpoints to perform field tasks in environments with varying levels of obstacle complexity. These missions become more challenging because UAVs have limited onboard resources, particularly in terms of energy, making it necessary to determine a safe and efficient path that enables all required visits to be completed while minimizing both travel distance and energy consumption. To address these challenges, this study proposes a hybrid fuzzy metaheuristic approach that integrates Cuckoo Search and Tabu Search for multi-objective UAV path planning. The proposed approach generates collision-free paths in environments with static obstacles and employs fuzzy logic to construct a unified evaluation function, in which distance and energy values are mapped to membership functions and combined into a single fitness score to guide the optimization process. Cuckoo Search drives global exploration of the solution space, while Tabu Search refines solutions locally. Together, they improve path quality and avoid premature convergence. Experimental results across two scenarios with varying obstacle densities and checkpoint counts demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed hybrid approach. Compared with two baseline algorithms, the hybrid approach achieves reductions in path length ranging from 0.01% to 42.11% and in energy consumption ranging from 0.08% to 27.91%, depending on scenario complexity. Moreover, it maintains a high success rate of 96–100% as both checkpoint counts and obstacle density increase, whereas the baseline algorithms drop to 3–13% in more complex environments. These results highlight the effectiveness and scalability of the approach for multi-checkpoint UAV path planning in obstacle-rich environments.