Autonomous UAV Control Using a 3-Sensor Autopilot
William J. Pisano, Dale Lawrence, Peter Gray · AIAA Infotech@Aerospace 2007 Conference and Exhibit · 2007
An autopilot system for a small unmanned vehicle is described which consists only of a single axis rate gyro, an absolute pressure sensor, and a GPS receiver. The structure of a control system is described which is able to estimate all necessary information to provide stabilization and guidance for a small flying wing UAV. A vector field guidance system is discussed that is able to navigate the aircraft from any initial location to a stable loiter around a point given only the coordinates of the desired point and the desired radius. Warping of the simple circular loiter into a racetrack shape is discussed. Modifications to the autopilot to achieve autonomous takeoff and landing are discussed. Experimental results of the successful implementation of all aspects of this autopilot system are shown, as well as an example flight where the only human interaction is to send a ‘takeoff’ and ‘land’ command.