Centralized Collision-free Polynomial Trajectories and Goal Assignment for Aerial Swarms

TL;DR

This paper presents a centralized method for assigning goals and generating collision-free polynomial trajectories for large aerial robot swarms, significantly reducing total arrival time with efficient computation.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled goal assignment and trajectory planning approach that minimizes total time and simplifies collision resolution, enabling scalable planning for thousands of agents.

Findings

Significant reduction in total arrival time for agents.

Efficient planning method scalable to thousands of agents.

Collision resolution using start delays or altitude adjustments.

Abstract

Computationally tractable methods are developed for centralized goal assignment and planning of collision-free polynomial-in-time trajectories for systems of multiple aerial robots. The method first assigns robots to goals to minimize total time-in-motion based on initial trajectories. By coupling the assignment and trajectory generation, the initial motion plans tend to require only limited collision resolution. The plans are then refined by checking for potential collisions and resolving them using either start time delays or altitude assignment. Numerical experiments using both methods show significant reductions in the total time required for agents to arrive at goals with only modest additional computational effort in comparison to state-of-the-art prior work, enabling planning for thousands of agents.