Is time-optimal speed planning under jerk constraints a convex problem?

Abstract: We consider the speed planning problem for a vehicle moving along an assigned trajectory, under maximum speed, tangential and lateral acceleration, and jerk constraints. The problem is a nonconvex one, where nonconvexity is due to jerk constraints. We propose a convex relaxation, and we present various theoretical properties. In particular, we show that the relaxation is exact under some assumptions. Also, we rewrite the relaxation as a Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP) problem. This has a relevant practical impact, since solvers for SOCP problems are quite efficient and allows solving large instances within tenths of a second. We performed many numerical tests, and in all of them the relaxation turned out to be exact. For this reason, we conjecture that the convex relaxation is always exact, although we could not give a formal proof of this fact.