Trajectory planning for a quadrotor helicopter

A simple direct method able to generate time-optimal trajectories for a micro quadrotor helicopter is presented. It is based on modeling the quadrotor trajectory as a composition of a parametric function P(lambda) defining the quadrotor path, and a monotonically increasing function lambda(t), specifying the motion on this path. The optimal evolutions of P(lambda) and lambda(t), which are approximated using B-spline functions, are found using a nonlinear optimization technique. The proposed method accounts for the most important constraints inherent to the system behavior, such as underactuation, obstacles avoidance and limits on actuator torques and speeds.