Enabling leg-based guidance on top of waypoint-based autopilots for UAS

Authors: Xavier Prats, Eduard Santamaria, Luis Delgado, Noel Trillo, Enric Pastor

Abstract:
This paper presents a methodology to extend the guidance functionalities of Commercial Off-The-Shelf autopilots currently available for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Providing that most autopilots only support elemental waypoint-based guidance, this technique allows the aircraft to follow leg-based flight plans without needing to modify the internal control algorithms of the autopilot. It is discussed how to provide Direct to Fix, Track to Fix and Hold to Fix path terminators (along with Fly-Over and FlyBy waypoints) to basic autopilots able to natively execute only a limited set of legs. Preliminary results show the feasibility of the proposal with flight simulations that used a flexible and reconfigurable UAS architecture specifically designed to avoid dependencies with a single or particular autopilot solution.

Keywords:
Leg-based guidance
RNAV navigation
Autopilot
UAS

Published in: Aerospace Science and Technology  (Volumes 24, Issue 1, January -  February, 2013)

Publisher: Elsevier

ISSN Information: 1270-9638

Enabling leg-based guidance on top of waypoint-based autopilots for UAS

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