STORM: Spatial-Temporal Iterative Optimization for Reliable Multicopter Trajectory Generation

Jinhao Zhang, Zhexuan Zhou, Wenlong Xia, Youmin Gong and Jie Mei

Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen

Code Video

Abstract

Efficient and safe trajectory planning plays a critical role in the application of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles. Currently, the inherent trade-off between constraint compliance and computational efficiency enhancement in UAV trajectory optimization problems has not been sufficiently addressed. To enhance the performance of UAV trajectory opti mization, we propose a spatial-temporal iterative optimization framework. Firstly, B-splines are utilized to represent UAV tra jectories, with rigorous safety assurance achieved through strict enforcement of constraints on control points. Subsequently, a set of QP-LP subproblems via spatial-temporal decoupling and constraint linearization is derived. Finally, an iterative optimization strategy incorporating guidance gradients is em ployed to obtain high-performance UAV trajectories in different scenarios. Both simulation and real-world experimental results validate the efficiency and high-performance of the proposed optimization framework in generating safe and fast trajectories.

STORM Structure Diagram