An Online Optimization-Based Trajectory Planning Approach for Cooperative Landing Tasks

--This paper presents a real-time trajectory planning scheme for a heterogeneous multi-robot system (consisting of a quadrotor and a ground mobile robot) for a cooperative landing task, where the landing position, landing time, and coordination between the robots are determined autonomously under the consideration of feasibility and user specifications. The proposed framework leverages the potential of the complementarity constraint as a decision-maker and an indicator for diverse cooperative tasks and extends it to the collaborative landing scenario. In a potential application of the proposed methodology, a ground mobile robot may serve as a mobile charging station and coordinates in real-time with a quadrotor to be charged, facilitating a safe and efficient rendezvous and landing. We verified the generated trajectories in simulation and real-world applications, demonstrating the real-time capabilities of the proposed landing planning framework. I. INTRODUCTION Heterogeneous multi-robot collaboration combines the advantages of different robot domains, providing wide-area coverage and high environmental adaptability. This cross-domain cooperation, where aerial and ground robots are usually involved, has been developed and utilized in various applications, such as search and rescue, logistics and delivery, and infrastructure inspection [1].