Optimal waypoint guidance, trajectory design and tracking

This paper first introduces a previously developed and flight tested waypoint guidance method and suggests some improvements, which make it more time optimal. Then - based on the successful flight testing of a trajectory tracking method - it introduces a method, which generates a shortest possible parameterized spatial trajectory based on a series of given waypoints. This trajectory is guaranteed to go through every point, even if they are close to each other. Some official search and rescue paths are generated applying the method. Both waypoint guidance, trajectory generation and tracking are successfully tested using the software-in-the-loop simulation environment and real flight tests of a small unmanned aerial vehicle.