An Efficient Approach of Time-Optimal Trajectory Generation for the Fully Autonomous Navigation of the Quadrotor

In this work, a time-optimal trajectory generation approach is developed for the multiple way-point navigation of the quadrotor based on the nonuniform rational B-spline (NURBS) curve and linear programming. To facilitate this development, the dynamic model of the quadrotor is formulated first. Then, the geometric trajectory regarding multiple way-point navigation is constructed based on the NURBS curve. With the constructed geometric trajectory, a time-optimal interpolation problem is imposed considering the velocity, acceleration, and jerk constraints. This optimization problem is solved in two steps. In the first step, a preliminary result is obtained by solving a linear programming problem without jerk constraints. Then by introducing properly relaxed jerk constraints, a second linear programming problem is formulated based on the preliminarily obtained result, and the time-optimal problem can be fully solved in this way. Subsequently, a nonlinear trajectory tracking controller is developed to track the generated trajectory. The feasibilities of the proposed trajectory generation approach as well as the tracking controller are verified through both simulations and real-time experiments. With enhanced computational efficiency, the proposed approach can generate trajectory for an indoor environment with the smooth acceleration profile and moderate velocity V≈1 m/s in real-time, while guaranteeing velocity, acceleration, and jerk constraints: Vmax=1 m/s, Amax=2 m/s2, and Jmax=5 m/s3. In such a case, the trajectory tracking controller can closely track the reference trajectory with cross-tracking error less than 0.05 m.