A method for aerial rendezvous of small unmanned aircraft systems is proposed. The system includes placing a passively towed drogue into an orbit that is suitable for a small unmanned aircraft systems to follow, and a seeker guidance method for use with a monocular camera mounted on the centerline of the unmanned aircraft systems. The principle contributions of the work include a method for controlling the drogue path in moderate winds by manipulating the mothership orbit and airspeed, and a vision-based nonlinear pursuit tracking method that uses pitch rate and roll commands to guide the unmanned aircraft systems to an aerial rendezvous with the drogue. Simulation and flight-test results are presented to demonstrate the suitability of these methods.


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    Title :

    Aerial Rendezvous of Small Unmanned Aircraft Using a Passive Towed Cable System


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2014-03-21


    Size :

    12 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





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