Assuming that the UAV is flying at a constant altitude and airspeed(V), held
constant by the control of the longitudinal dynamics. The following is a simple first
order model of the navigational dynamics to be used to study the path following
behavior of the UAV.

An alternative representation of the above equations is
x = Vcos\u03a8 + Wx = Vx + Wx = Sx
y = Vsin\u03a8 + Wy = Vy + Wy = Sy

Or,as seen in figure
x = S cos \u03c7
y = S sin \u03c7

The key difference from the DTS is that the equations of motion are expressed in
terms of groundspeed and ground track heading and are independent of the wind
velocity.This dramatically improves performance in situations where wind is a
factor, which is true in the case of a small fixed wing UAV.

It is assumed that the UAV is equipped with an autopilot that implements a ground
track heading hold loop and that the resulting dynamics are represented by the
following first order system.

1. When the UAV is far away from the line(lateral distance greater than 2 to 3
times the minimum turn radius) , the objective is to fly toward the path.
2. The transition region around the path is indicated by dashed lines which lie at
a distance ( \u03c4 ) on each side of the path. Outside the transition region, the

The following algorithm maneuvers the UAV to follow straight line paths with
asymptotically decaying error provided it can generate enough thrust to yield a
positive ground speed. Lyapunov arguments are used to justify these claims.