Trajectory Optimization of Autonomous Agents With Spatio-Temporal Constraints

This article addresses the problem of optimally controlling trajectories of autonomous mobile agents (e.g., robots) so as to jointly minimize travel time and energy consumption in the presence of multiple spatio-temporal constraints on these trajectories. In addition to state and input constraints, we impose spatial equality and temporal inequality constraints viewed as interior-point constraints. We address this problem by first identifying the structure of the optimal agent controllable acceleration profile and showing that it is characterized by several parameters subsequently used for trajectory design optimization. Therefore, the infinite dimensional optimal control problem is transformed into a finite dimensional parametric optimization problem. The proposed algorithm is applied to the eco-driving problem of autonomous vehicles approaching multiple signalized intersections. We include simulation results to show quantitatively the advantages of the proposed solution.