Link! is a multi-center NASA e ort to study the feasibility of multi-aircraft aerial docking systems. In these systems, a group of vehicles physically link to each other during flight to form a larger ensemble vehicle with increased aerodynamic performance and mission utility. This paper presents a potential field guidance algorithm for a group of multi-rotor vehicles to link to each other during flight. The linking is done in pairs. Each vehicle first selects a mate. Then the potential field is constructed with three rules: move towards the mate, avoid collisions with non-mates, and stay close to the rest of the group. Once a pair links, they are then considered to be a single vehicle. After each pair is linked, the process repeats until there is only one vehicle left. The paper contains simulation results for a system of 16 vehicles.
Link!: Potential Field Guidance Algorithm for In-Flight Linking of Multi-Rotor Aircraft
AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition (AIAA Aviation 2017) ; 2017 ; Denver, CO, United States
2017-06-05
Conference paper
No indication
English
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2017
|Multi-rotor flight control method, flight controller and aircraft
European Patent Office | 2022
|