Trajectory Generation for Energy-Constrained Aerial Robots with Application in Area-Coverage

In this article, we address the trajectory generation for an energy-constrained quadrotor in applying for area coverage. The traditional path planning algorithm of area coverage finally generates waypoints for the robot to follow instead of a continuous path. Waypoints have limited ability in the quadrotor's future trajectory planning and cannot accurately describe the quadrotor's energy consumption process. Based on the above problems, firstly, VPG method is used to generate the waypoints sequence under the area coverage model. Secondly, we construct the energy constraint model which can maximize the path length with limited energy and waypoints are smoothed into continuous trajectory with more information by using B-splines. Finally, the trajectory in the form of B-splines is optimized to satisfy the dynamic constraints of the real quadrotor. The work of this paper has been verified on quadrotor flight experiments.