LOONG: Online Time-Optimal Autonomous Flight for MAVs in Cluttered Environments

TL;DR

LOONG introduces an integrated planning and control framework enabling MAVs to perform time-optimal, high-speed autonomous flights in cluttered environments, validated through extensive real-world experiments achieving speeds up to 18 m/s.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel integrated planning and control approach combining imitation learning and model predictive contouring control for time-optimal MAV flight in cluttered spaces.

Findings

Achieves peak speeds of 18 m/s in real-world cluttered environments.

Demonstrates superior aggressiveness compared to existing methods.

Successfully completes 10 consecutive trials from diverse start points.

Abstract

Autonomous flight of micro air vehicles (MAVs) in unknown, cluttered environments remains challenging for time-critical missions due to conservative maneuvering strategies. This article presents an integrated planning and control framework for high-speed, time-optimal autonomous flight of MAVs in cluttered environments. In each replanning cycle (100 Hz), a time-optimal trajectory under polynomial presentation is generated as a reference, with the time-allocation process accelerated by imitation learning. Subsequently, a time-optimal model predictive contouring control (MPCC) incorporates safe flight corridor (SFC) constraints at variable horizon steps to enable aggressive yet safe maneuvering, while fully exploiting the MAV's dynamics. We validate the proposed framework extensively on a custom-built LiDAR-based MAV platform. Simulation results demonstrate superior aggressiveness compared to the state of the art, while real-world experiments achieve a peak speed of 18 m/s in a cluttered environment and succeed in 10 consecutive trials from diverse start points. The video is available at the following link: https://youtu.be/vexXXhv99oQ.