Minimum time reference trajectory generation for an autonomous quadrotor

A three dimension trajectory generation and tracking for an autonomous quadrotor is studied in this paper. The vehicle is represented as one point which is its center of gravity, and only the kinematic equations are considered for trajectory generation problem. The model is derived using Newton's second law. The proposed trajectory generation method allows the computation of a time optimal trajectory which satisfies vehicle's capacity and minimizes traveled time between an initial configuration and a final one. Next, the obtained reference trajectory is applied to the full quadrotor dynamic model and an autopilot to ensure the trajectory tracking is designed. Numerical simulations with different scenarios are realized in order to illustrate the proposed trajectory generation method and validate the designed tracking strategy.