Search
Close
  • About Us
    • Governance
    • Our Team
    • Labs
    • Open positions
    • Alumni
  • Research
    • Wearable robotics
      • ReGait++
      • Third Arm
    • Rescue Robotics
      • Flying Robots
      • Legged robots
      • Collaboration, Learning and Tests
    • Educational robotics
      • Cellulo
      • Thymio
    • Publications
    • Open Science
  • Education
    • How to get into robotics
      • How our professors got into robotics
      • How our researchers got started
    • Robotics for kids
      • Activities for Kids
      • R2t2 Mars Mission
    • Graduate Programs in Robotics
    • Resources
  • Tech Transfer
    • Researchers expertise
    • Spin-Offs
    • Swiss Robotics Day
    • Swiss Robotics Ecosystem
    • Resources
  • Equal Opportunities
    • Robotics for Girls
    • Master students
    • Young Researchers
    • Building Equality
    • Women in Robotics
    • Resources
  • Awards & Programs
    • Spin-Fund
    • Master Students Exchange Program
    • PhD/Postdoc exchange program
    • Award for Career Development
    • Swiss Robotics Masters Award
    • Award for Scientific Visibility
    • Women keynote speakers
    • Best Paper Award
    • Ukrainian researchers
  • Outreach
    • Swiss Drone Days
    • Cybathlon
    • Swiss Robotics Days
    • Other Outreach Events
  • Contact
Menu
  • About Us
    • Governance
    • Our Team
    • Labs
    • Open positions
    • Alumni
  • Research
    • Wearable robotics
      • ReGait++
      • Third Arm
    • Rescue Robotics
      • Flying Robots
      • Legged robots
      • Collaboration, Learning and Tests
    • Educational robotics
      • Cellulo
      • Thymio
    • Publications
    • Open Science
  • Education
    • How to get into robotics
      • How our professors got into robotics
      • How our researchers got started
    • Robotics for kids
      • Activities for Kids
      • R2t2 Mars Mission
    • Graduate Programs in Robotics
    • Resources
  • Tech Transfer
    • Researchers expertise
    • Spin-Offs
    • Swiss Robotics Day
    • Swiss Robotics Ecosystem
    • Resources
  • Equal Opportunities
    • Robotics for Girls
    • Master students
    • Young Researchers
    • Building Equality
    • Women in Robotics
    • Resources
  • Awards & Programs
    • Spin-Fund
    • Master Students Exchange Program
    • PhD/Postdoc exchange program
    • Award for Career Development
    • Swiss Robotics Masters Award
    • Award for Scientific Visibility
    • Women keynote speakers
    • Best Paper Award
    • Ukrainian researchers
  • Outreach
    • Swiss Drone Days
    • Cybathlon
    • Swiss Robotics Days
    • Other Outreach Events
  • Contact
Search
Close
  • NCCR Robotics
    • Highlights
    • Governance
    • Our team
    • Labs
    • Past programs
    • Alumni
    • Open positions in robotics
  • Research
    • Wearable Robotics
      • ReGait++
      • Third Arm
    • Rescue Robotics
      • Flying robots
      • Legged robots
      • Collaborations, learning and tests
    • Educational Robotics
      • Cellulo
      • Thymio
    • Publications
    • Open Science
    • Research resources
  • Education
    • How to get into robotics
      • How our professors got into robotics
      • How our researchers got started
    • Robotics for kids
      • Activities for kids
      • R2t2 Mars mission
    • Graduate programs in robotics
    • Resources
  • Tech Transfer
    • Researchers expertise
    • Spin-Offs
    • Swiss Robotics Day
    • Swiss Robotics Ecosystem
    • Resources
  • Equal Opportunities
    • Building equality
    • Women in Robotics
    • Resources
  • Outreach
    • Swiss Robotics Days
    • Swiss Drone Days
    • Cybathlon
    • Photo exhibit
    • Other Outreach Events
Menu
  • NCCR Robotics
    • Highlights
    • Governance
    • Our team
    • Labs
    • Past programs
    • Alumni
    • Open positions in robotics
  • Research
    • Wearable Robotics
      • ReGait++
      • Third Arm
    • Rescue Robotics
      • Flying robots
      • Legged robots
      • Collaborations, learning and tests
    • Educational Robotics
      • Cellulo
      • Thymio
    • Publications
    • Open Science
    • Research resources
  • Education
    • How to get into robotics
      • How our professors got into robotics
      • How our researchers got started
    • Robotics for kids
      • Activities for kids
      • R2t2 Mars mission
    • Graduate programs in robotics
    • Resources
  • Tech Transfer
    • Researchers expertise
    • Spin-Offs
    • Swiss Robotics Day
    • Swiss Robotics Ecosystem
    • Resources
  • Equal Opportunities
    • Building equality
    • Women in Robotics
    • Resources
  • Outreach
    • Swiss Robotics Days
    • Swiss Drone Days
    • Cybathlon
    • Photo exhibit
    • Other Outreach Events

Time-optimal planning for quadrotor waypoint flight

Publication date:

  • June 23, 2021

Authors:

Philipp Foehn
Angel Romero
Davide Scaramuzza

Abstract

Quadrotors are among the most agile flying robots. However, planning time-optimal trajectories at the actuation limit through multiple waypoints remains an open problem. This is crucial for applications such as inspection, delivery, search and rescue, and drone racing. Early works used polynomial trajectory formulations, which do not exploit the full actuator potential because of their inherent smoothness. Recent works resorted to numerical optimization but require waypoints to be allocated as costs or constraints at specific discrete times. However, this time allocation is a priori unknown and renders previous works incapable of producing truly time-optimal trajectories. To generate truly time-optimal trajectories, we propose a solution to the time allocation problem while exploiting the full quadrotor’s actuator potential. We achieve this by introducing a formulation of progress along the trajectory, which enables the simultaneous optimization of the time allocation and the trajectory itself. We compare our method against related approaches and validate it in real-world flights in one of the world’s largest motion-capture systems, where we outperform human expert drone pilots in a drone-racing task.

Reference
Doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abh1221
Published in: Science Robotics,
 Volume 6,
 Issue 56,
 Pages eabh1221
Read the paper
Version: Published
Access: Open Access
Download
  • Innovation Booster Robotics
  • News
  • Past Events
  • Contact
  • Innovation Booster Robotics
  • News
  • Past Events
  • Contact
  • Journalists and media
  • News bulletin archive
  • Newsletter archive
  • Journalists and media
  • News bulletin archive
  • Newsletter archive
Twitter Linkedin Youtube
NCCR Robotics partner institutions

Leading house

epfl_white

Co-Leading house

eth_white
unizuerich_white
idsia_white
unibe_all_white
empa-all-white
unibasel_white

This website was built by NCCR Robotics and provides useful information on Swiss Robotics. From December 2022, it is no longer updated.

Copyright © 2022 NCCR Robotics. All rights reserved.