An Optimization Problem for Quadcopter Reference Flight Trajectory Generation

Abstract

This paper deals with the reference flight trajectory generation and planning problems for quadcopter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The reference flight trajectory is defined as the composition of path and motion functions. Both of them are generated by using quintic B-spline functions. Based on differential flatness approach, the quadcopter dynamical constraints are satisfied instantaneously by computing the induced aerodynamical moments and lift force. The optimal reference flight trajectory, with respect to the mission requirements and imposed constraints, is reached by manipulating the control points’ vectors of B-spline functions via a nonlinear constrained optimization method. The mission requirements are defined as a set of waypoints with their respective scheduled flight timetable. A minimum-energy cost function is developed to minimize the consumed energy and induced efforts by reference flight trajectory. For the need of the optimal overfly-times schedule, the overfly times with respect to the defined constraints and performance criteria are calculated. Numerical simulation results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed optimization method.