3-Dimensional Tree-Based Trajectory Planning with Highly Maneuverable Vehicles
Baron Johnson, Rick Lind · 49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition · 2011
Trajectory primitives provide a useful local solution method within sampling-based path planning algorithms to produce feasible but suboptimal trajectories through complicated environments with relatively low computational cost. Extensions to the traditional trajectory primitives are demonstrated which permit 3-dimensional maneuvers with continuous heading and flight path angles throughout the entire path. These extensions, which include simple transformations as well as additional maneuvers, maintain closed-form solutions to the local planning problems and therefore maintain low computational cost. An example of extreme vehicle maneuverability is included with high angle-of-attack flight of an aircraft, in which the airspeed and turning radius are both greatly reduced. Conditional rules are developed that describe the general high angle-of-attack operating range of an aircraft capable of such maneuvers. The library of potential trajectory primitives is then augmented with primitives performed at high angle-of-attack and included in a random dense tree trajectory planner through an environment with a high density of obstacles. It is shown that in such an environment the inclusion of high angle-of-attack primitives typically results in lower and more consistent path times. High angle-of-attack primitives also hold potential benefits for paths with other concerns besides path time, such as sensing quality or temporal requirements.