Stability of a Thermal Centering Controller
Klas Andersson, Issac Kaminer · 2009
1 the concept of using cooperating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to search for thermal lift in order to extend endurance was investigated. This paper elaborates upon this work by including a theoretical analysis of the stability and convergence of the heuristic controller used for centering on thermals. Using an exponential Gaussian function to represent the updraft field in a thermal, the analysis proves the controller to be asymptotically stable at the equilibrium state given. It further provides the region of stability for varying feedback gains of the controller and for different strength and sizes of the thermal.