Rectangular Pyramid Partitioning using Integrated Depth Sensors (RAPPIDS): A Fast Planner for Multicopter Navigation

We present a novel multicopter trajectory planning algorithm (RAPPIDS) that is capable of quickly finding local collision-free trajectories given a single depth image from an onboard camera. The algorithm leverages a new pyramid-based spatial partitioning method that enables rapid collision detection between candidate trajectories and the environment. Due to its efficiency, the algorithm can be run at high rates on computationally constrained hardware, evaluating thousands of candidate trajectories in milliseconds. The performance of the algorithm is compared to existing collision checking methods in simulation, showing our method to be capable of evaluating orders of magnitude more trajectories per second. Experimental results are presented showing a quadcopter quickly navigating a previously unseen cluttered environment by running the algorithm on an ODROID-XU4 at 30 Hz.