Trajectory Planning Based on Spatial-Temporal Constraints for MAV/UAV Cooperative System

Manned aerial vehicle (MAV)/ Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) cooperative system will be a significant form of aerial engagement in future. Based on convex optimization theory, a trajectory planning method for the cooperative system is proposed. Firstly, the motion model of the system was established and the controlling process was analyzed. Secondly, trajectory planners of MAV and UAV were designed, where the minimum energy consumption and the shortest time to arrival were selected as optimization objective respectively. Then the model of the two planners was approximated and convexified, with the spatial-temporal constraints. After that, the convex optimization algorithm was used to solve the problem. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method is verified by taking the dual aerial vehicle as a scenario. The results show that the convex optimization algorithm can solve the optimal model of the trajectory planners effectively, and the safety of the cooperative system can be guaranteed by adding the spatial-temporal constraints.