Fast generation of chance-constrained flight trajectory for unmanned vehicles

In this work, a fast chance-constrained trajectory generation strategy incorporating convex optimization and convex approximation of chance constraints is designed so as to solve the unmanned vehicle path planning problem. A pathlength- optimal unmanned vehicle trajectory optimization model is constructed with the consideration of the pitch angle constraint, the curvature radius constraint, the probabilistic control actuation constraint, and the probabilistic collision avoidance constraint. Subsequently, convexification technique is introduced to convert the nonlinear problem formulation into a convex form. To deal with the probabilistic constraints in the optimization model, convex approximation techniques are introduced such that the probabilistic constraints are replaced by deterministic ones, while simultaneously preserving the convexity of the optimization model. Numerical results, obtained from a number of case studies, validate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed approach. A number of comparative studies were also performed. The results confirm that the proposed design is able to produce more optimal flight paths and achieve enhanced computational performance than other chance-constrained optimization approaches investigated in this paper.