Onboard Generation of Optimal Flight Trajectory for Delivery of Fragile Packages

Abstract

Real-time onboard flight trajectory generation is of great importance for all kinds of flying vehicles. This paper proposes a method to generate the trajectory which minimizes the damage due to flight motion to a fragile package. The proposed methodology has several potential applications including drone organ delivery. A similar procedure can also be used in applications where the objective is to maximize passenger comfort during flight. An analytical solution of the optimal trajectory generation problem is derived under arbitrary two-point boundary value constraints. An approach to solve for the optimal flight time is also proposed, which can be easily implemented on common embedded processors. The algorithm is extended to guarantee that a peak velocity constraint is verified. The effects of a parameter called the cost index on the optimal solution are also discussed. Examples show how the procedure can be used in a specific application.