Closed form parametrisation of 3D clothoids by arclength with both linear varying curvature and torsion (Q2079089)

The clothoid curve (or Euler spiral, or Cornu spiral) is characterized by its arc length being proportional to its curvature which leads to its parametrization by Fresnel integrals. The author extends its definition from the planar case to the three-dimensional one. The problem is modelled as a linear time variant system and its stability is studied using Lyapunov techniques. Closed-form solutions in terms of the standard Fresnel integrals are valid for a wide family of clothoids. In the other cases, numerical methods of order four, based on Lie algebra, Magnus expansions and commutator-free expansions are proposed. These optimised geometric integrators are easily implemented with few lines of code and require only matrix-vector products (avoiding explicit matrix exponentials at each iteration). The achieved computational efficiency is essential for designing trajectories for flying vehicles, because the method uses closed form solutions, which are not computationally expensive.