Direct Method for Gliding Trajectory Optimization Problem

Direct method has been widely applied in trajectory optimization. Direct trajectory optimization software—SOCS, CAMTOS and GPOPS—adopts direct collocation method, direct multiple shooting algorithm and Gauss Pseudo-spectral Method in solving process respectively. Direct method is less complex than indirect method. It is unnecessary to derive adjoint equations, and the number of differential equations is less than half of that in indirect method. However, the scale of discrete optimization variables is very large. As a result, higher requirements of the calculation efficiency for these optimization algorithms are imposed.