“Landing unmanned VTOL systems: Issues in control and

navigation ”AEROSPACE CONTROL AND GUIDANCE SYSTEMS COMMITTEE

Eric FeronDutton/Ducoffe ProfessorSchool of Aerospace EngineeringGeorgia Institute of Technology

Outline

High Agility Flight New local positioning sensor for landing Obstacle-sensitive flight controls

Aerobatic Helicopter

HILSim

Ground Station

High agility flight

Concept: A helicopter Carrier forFirefighting/Law Enforcement

2.4m

Target

~0.5m

~0.55m

Cab

Forward Configuration, side view

Managing the interface:Automated landing

0

x y

Requirements:-Repeatable landings in demanding areas-No GPS system upon final approach-Sensing issues-Actuation issues

d

x

yh

Sensing Solution via Moire Pattern

Light source

Gratings

Demo

Current System

Vertical Wall Landing

Conservative Landing Approach will not work. We will assume we are given a feasible reference trajectory

X - Travel

H –

hei

ght

Wall

3 DOF helicopter

More attempts…

Bottom line

We get a gain-scheduled family of obstacle-sensitive trajectory trackers in one shot.

Allows us to change what output we care most about in real-time, and schedule controllers accordingly.

Controllers come with built-in closed-loop stability guarantees.

Controller structure may vary quickly.

Example: Longitudinal motion of “helicopter”

Reference trajectory

Obstacle

The end

feron@gatech.edu