Real-Time Velocity Profile Optimization for Time-Optimal Maneuvering With Generic Acceleration Constraints

The computation of time-optimal velocity profiles along prescribed paths, subject to generic acceleration constraints, is a crucial problem in robot trajectory planning, with particular relevance to autonomous racing. However, the existing methods either support arbitrary acceleration constraints at high computational cost or use conservative box constraints for computational efficiency. We propose FBGA, a new Forward-Backward algorithm with Generic Acceleration constraints, which achieves both high accuracy and low computation time. FBGA operates forward and backward passes to maximize the velocity profile in short, discretized path segments, while satisfying user-defined performance limits. Tested on five racetracks and two vehicle classes, FBGA handles complex, non-convex acceleration constraints with custom formulations. Its maneuvers and lap times closely match optimal control baselines (within 0.11%-0.36%), while being up to three orders of magnitude faster. FBGA maintains high accuracy even with coarse discretization, making it well-suited for online multi-query trajectory planning.