Path planning using concatenated analytically-defined trajectories for quadrotor UAVs

Jamieson, Jonathan and Biggs, James (2015) Path planning using concatenated analytically-defined trajectories for quadrotor UAVs. Aerospace, 2 (2). pp. 155-170. ISSN 2052-451X

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    Abstract

    This paper presents a semi-analytical trajectory planning method for quadrotor UAVs. These trajectories are analytically defined, are constant in speed and sub-optimal with respect to a weighted quadratic cost function of the translational and angular velocities. A technique for concatenating the trajectories into multi-segment paths is demonstrated. These paths are smooth to the first derivative of the translational position and pass through defined waypoints. A method for detecting potential collisions by discretizing the path into a coarse mesh before using a numerical optimiser to determine the point of the path closest to the obstacle is presented. This hybrid method reduces the computation time when compared to discretizing the trajectory into a fine mesh and calculating the minimum distance. A tracking controller is defined and used to show that the paths are dynamically feasible and the typical magnitudes of the controller inputs required to fly them.

    ORCID iDs

    Jamieson, Jonathan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5783-0185 and Biggs, James;
    CORE (COnnecting REpositories)