Trajectory planning and execution using robust funnels

This paper presents a new robust path planning and execution methodology for constrained linear systems, using reachable sequences of sets denoted funnels. Constraint tightening is used to guarantee the existence of a combined feedforward and affine disturbance-feedback policy to guide the system trajectory from anywhere within a set of initial states to a target set, through a sequence of intermediate sets forming the cross-section of the funnel. It is shown how the sets can be placed to guarantee robust obstacle avoidance for a known bounded disturbance. Numerical simulations are used to demonstrate the approach on a simple unmanned aerial vehicle model.