Computationally efficient algorithm to generate a waypoints-based trajectory for a quadrotor UAV

The complex dynamical burden of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be reduced by designing dynamically feasible and computationally fast trajectories. This brief discusses the waypoints-based trajectory generation algorithm specifically for a quadrotor UAV and considers linear interpolation along with parabolic blends. The aforementioned approach has only been studied for robot manipulators in the literature, on the other hand, it can also be used to design smooth trajectories for underactuated systems like quadrotors. The linear interpolation is computationally fast as compared to the polynomial based interpolation schemes, however, the former approach results in discontinuities at waypoints which can be eradicated using parabolic blends. Furthermore, flatness theory is conferred which helps in designing the trajectories in flat output space. A nonlinear trajectory tracking controller is also designed to test the generated trajectories in simulation environment and presented results infer smooth tracking control.