Rudder-Augmented Trajectory Correction for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to Minimize Lateral Image Errors
Thomas Fisher, Rajnikant Sharma · Journal of Aerospace Information Systems · 2018
Civil applications for unmanned aerial vehicles have increased rapidly over the last few years. In the realm of civil applications, many aircraft carry cameras that are physically fixed to the airframe. Although this yields a simple and robust remote sensing platform, the image quality diminishes with increasing attitude errors. A rudder-augmented trajectory correction method for small unmanned aerial vehicles is discussed in this paper. The goal of this type of controller is to minimize the lateral image errors of body-fixed nongimbaled cameras. This paper presents a comparison to current aileron-only trajectory correction autopilots. Simulation and flight test results are presented that show significant reduction in the roll angle present during trajectory correction, resulting in a large effect on total flight line image deviations.