Jointly-optimized Trajectory Generation and Camera Control for 3D Coverage Planning
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Apr 8, 2025
Abstract
This work proposes a jointly optimized trajectory generation and camera
control approach, enabling an autonomous agent, such as an unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) operating in 3D environments, to plan and execute coverage
trajectories that maximally cover the surface area of a 3D object of interest.
Specifically, the UAV's kinematic and camera control inputs are jointly
optimized over a rolling planning horizon to achieve complete 3D coverage of
the object. The proposed controller incorporates ray-tracing into the planning
process to simulate the propagation of light rays, thereby determining the
visible parts of the object through the UAV's camera. This integration enables
the generation of precise look-ahead coverage trajectories. The coverage
planning problem is formulated as a rolling finite-horizon optimal control
problem and solved using mixed-integer programming techniques. Extensive
real-world and synthetic experiments validate the performance of the proposed
approach.
