Dubins Path Guidance for Fixed-Wing UAS Remote Sensing Applications
Aaron T. Blevins, Shawn Keshmiri, Daksh Shukla, Grant Godfrey · AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum · 2020
In this work, real-time optimal path planning is achieved for flight line tracking and loiter circles by taking into account dynamic constraints of a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft using Dubins path generation. Next, adaptive guidance algorithms are applied in order for the aircraft to precisely track these optimal paths. Flight line tracking is improved through the use of a trackline integral acceleration term, and optimal control techniques are applied using an augmented state space model. Improvements in aircraft tracking performance compared to traditional methods is quantified through simulations utilizing six-degree of freedom aircraft equations of motion for various flight line survey missions.