A discrete time, optimal trajectory planning scheme for position trajectory generation of a vehicle is given here, considering the mission duration as a free variable. The vehicle is actuated in three rotational degrees of freedom and one translational degree of freedom. This model is applicable to vehicles that have a body-fixed thrust vector direction for translational motion control, including fixed-wing and rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and spacecraft. The lightweight scheme proposed here generates the trajectory in inertial coordinates, and is intended for real time, on-the-go applications. The unspecified terminal time can be considered as an additional design parameter. This is done by deriving the optimality conditions in a discrete time setting, which results in the discrete transversality condition. The trajectory starts from an initial position and reaches a desired final position in an unspecified final time that ensures the cost on state and control is optimized. The trajectory generated by this scheme can be considered as the desired trajectory for a tracking control scheme. Numerical simulation results validate the performance of this trajectory generation scheme used in conjunction with a nonlinear tracking control scheme. 
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                            Trajectory generation on SE(3) with applications to a class of underactuated vehicles
                        
                    
    
            This paper addresses the problem of generating a continuous and differentiable trajectory on the Lie group of rigid body motions, SE(3), for a class of underactuated vehicles modeled as rigid bodies. The three rotational degrees of freedom (DOF) are independently actuated, while only one translational DOF is actuated by a body-fixed thrust vector. This model is applicable to a large set of unmanned vehicles, including fixed-wing and rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The formulation utilizes exponential coordinates to express the underactuation constraint as an intrinsic part of the problem. It provides steps to generate a rest-to-rest trajectory after obtaining conditions that guarantee controllability. An attitude trajectory is selected to satisfy the given initial and final attitude state. The position trajectory generation is subsequently posed as an optimal control problem expressed as a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) in the exponential coordinates corresponding to position. As a result, an optimal position trajectory is obtained which ensures that the trajectory generated is feasible with realistic velocities and with given initial pose and final pose, while satisfying the underactuation constraint. Numerical simulation results are obtained that validate this trajectory generation scheme. 
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                            - Award ID(s):
- 1739748
- PAR ID:
- 10076908
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2017 IEEE 56th Annual Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 2557 to 2562
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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