Geometrically Constrained Trajectory Optimization for Multicopters
This addresses efficient and reliable trajectory planning for multicopters with limited resources, representing an incremental improvement through a novel method for a known bottleneck.
The paper tackles multicopter trajectory planning under geometric and dynamic constraints by introducing an optimization framework that transforms constrained problems into unconstrained ones, achieving high-quality solutions with computation speeds orders of magnitude faster than specialized methods.
We present an optimization-based framework for multicopter trajectory planning subject to geometrical configuration constraints and user-defined dynamic constraints. The basis of the framework is a novel trajectory representation built upon our novel optimality conditions for unconstrained control effort minimization. We design linear-complexity operations on this representation to conduct spatial-temporal deformation under various planning requirements. Smooth maps are utilized to exactly eliminate geometrical constraints in a lightweight fashion. A variety of state-input constraints are supported by the decoupling of dense constraint evaluation from sparse parameterization, and backward differentiation of flatness map. As a result, this framework transforms a generally constrained multicopter planning problem into an unconstrained optimization that can be solved reliably and efficiently. Our framework bridges the gaps among solution quality, planning efficiency, and constraint fidelity for a multicopter with limited resources and maneuvering capability. Its generality and robustness are both demonstrated by applications to different flight tasks. Extensive simulations and benchmarks are also conducted to show its capability of generating high-quality solutions while retaining the computation speed against other specialized methods by orders of magnitude. The source code of our framework is available at: https://github.com/ZJU-FAST-Lab/GCOPTER