An autonomous flight control algorithm is proposed for a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to carry out waypoint navigation tasks while exploiting thermals to cut down on energy consumption. The main components of the flight control algorithm are a waypoint navigation system that is coupled with an altitude controller, a thermaling flight controller, and a gliding flight controller that is combined with a proportional-integral controller to maintain a desired heading angle. The flight control algorithm is tested using a three degrees-of-freedom point mass model for a notional fixed-wing aircraft model. The flight control algorithm is demonstrated to perform satisfactorily. The aircraft reaches all of the desired waypoints and exploits thermals to save energy.
Development of an Autonomous Soaring Algorithm for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems
2021-06-15
1882888 byte
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Efficient Trajectory Development for Small Unmanned Aircraft Dynamic Soaring Applications
Online Contents | 2015
|Soaring flight and soaring aircraft
Engineering Index Backfile | 1922
NTIS | 2007
|NTRS | 2007
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