Optimal Path Planning for Small UAVs in Wind
Sikha Hota, Debasish Ghose · Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligent Unmanned Systems · 2010
This paper proposes an optimal path planning strategy that enables an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) to converge to a rectilinear path starting from any arbitrary but known initial position and orientation. The vehicle is constrained by its minimum turn radius. During the flight the altitude and airspeed are held constant. This is a 2-dimensional modified Dubins problem and unlike in the classical Dubins problem, the final point and orientation are not specified. However, the straight line on which the final point should be is specified. Based on the kinematic properties of the vehicle, generation of optimal path is discussed both in the constant and time-varying wind condition. Using a full 6-DOF simulink model of an UAV this generated optimal path is tracked by autopilot consisting of proportional-integralderivative (PID) controllers. The longitudinal and lateral dynamics are assumed to be decoupled and the velocity and altitude are held constant with the help of the longitudinal autopilot. The simulation results show path generation and tracking for a few sample cases.