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    Accurate Autonomous Landing of a Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft under Crosswind Conditions

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    7 views6 pages

    Accurate Autonomous Landing of A Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft Under Crosswind Conditions

    Uploaded by

    Carlos Romero
    AFCS design

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    Avallabe online at wrnv.scioncodiractcom ScienceDirect IEAC-PapersOnLine 49172016) 170-175 IFAC: brine CONFERENCE PAPER ARCHIVE Accurate Autonomous Landing of a Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft under Crosswind Conditions Andrew de Bruin* Thomas Jones* * Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Stellenbosch iniversity, Stellenbosch, South Africa (e-mail: 164588260@sun.ac.2a, jones@sun.ac.2a) Abstract: The unpredictability of erosswind effects often complicate the final approach and onding procedure of any aircraft. A control system architecture with strong disturbance rojection eharacteristies for Unmanned Aireratt: is presented, where the primary objective is to accurately land a fixed-wing aircraft under adverse weather conditions. A synergistic controller architecture is presented, where the aim is to design a structure capable of executing one of three landing techniques, or combination thereot, by simply activating various controllers at different stages of the landing phase. An acceleration-based controller architecture is used for the inner-loop controllers to reject disturbances at the acceleration level before they manifest as doviations in inertial position and velocity. A normal specific acceleration controller is augmented to exploit the high-bandwidth capabilities of direct lift control by actively using flaps to generate lift. Various crosswind landing techniques, developed for manned aircraft, are investigated and emulated by the coutrollers to exploit the advantages of each technique, Results show that the controllers are able to accurately land the aireratt within 0.5m of the intended touchdown point, and that the amount of lateral deviation on the runway can be minimised when controller sequencing is effectively used to align the landing gear with the direction of travel on the runway: © 2016, IPAC (Luternational Pederation of Au tie Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Automatic Aircraft Control, Crosswind Landing Techniques 1. INTRODUCTION a crabbed configuration (Fig. 1a) relies on the use of thrust to counter the drag force induced by the incident airflow. An aircraft approaching the runway in a low- wing configuration (Fig. 1b) on the other hand, makes use of the lift vector to counter the side force by banking This project is focused on developing an autonomous landing system for a fixed-wing Unmanned Aircraft (UA), where the objective would be to land an aireratt accurately during typical adverse weather conditions. Landing a aireraft under crosswind conditions is not a trivial task even for experienced pilots, The unpredictaility of wind gusts and turbulence effects often complicates the final approach. Pilots make use of various landing techniques, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, that they will use throughout the landing phase of the mission, This research is focused on the development of a high bandwidth controller architecture capable of emulating various crosswind landing techniques, 2. LANDING TECHNIQUES For an aircraft to land in the presence of erosswind, two conditions must generally be met. The flightpath should be aligned with the runway and the longitudinal axis of the aircraft (heading) should also be aligned with the runway. Inadverse weather conditions, and more specifically in the presence of a crosswind, the final approach needs to be altered somewhat to allow for a safe and successful landing. Two primary approach methods are typically employed by pilots when aligning the flight path with the runway, nauiely, the erabbed approach and the sideslip or low wing approach. An aireraft approaching the runway in in the direction of the crosswind. According to the Fed- Fright Paty 4 Wi Ars S& Stu (a) Crabbed Approach, (b) Low-wing Approach Fig. 1. Two approach techniques for aligning the flight path in crosswind conditions, eral Aviation Administration (2014), there are three main landing techniques that pilots will adopt when landing ‘under crosswind conditions, namely, erabbed landing, de- crab landing and low-wing landing. The erabbed landing technique involves flying the length of the terminal glides- lope in a crabbed configuration and touebing «own with the heading of the aireraft uot fully aligned with the run way. Similar to the erabbed landing technique, the de-erab landing technique follows the erabbed approach method, however, a de-crab manoeuvre is executed moments before touchdown to align the aireraft heading with the runway The low-wing landing technique involves flying the length 2405-8063 © 2016, IPAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier La All rights reserved, eer review under responsibil 30-1016 jaca 2016.08.00 ‘of International Federation of Awtenuatic Control Aarew de Brin etl. /IEAC-PapersOnine 49-17 (2016) 170-175 m of the terminal glideslope using the low-wing approach Figure 3 depiets the natural modes of motion for this, with the heading of the aircraft aligned with the runway. particular aircraft. A general description of modes of ‘The aircraft will approach the runway with a residual bank joe eee angle and touehdown with the upwind main wheel fist » = en eo 3. AIRCRAFT MODELLING | ae a ‘The standard test vehicle for fixed-wing autoland projects 4 camp in the Electronic Systems Laboratory (ESL), is 1 mod : oer ified remote controlled trainer aircraft manufactured by eg rr——..CiCiCisC nai will be centred around the dynamics of this particular airframe, however, the landing system ean theoretically he S implemented on a wide variety of UA. Figure 2 describes the notation and symbols associated with the body axis 4 system of the aireraft. These symbols will be referred to throughout this paper. A mathematical representation of a) Fig, 3, Longituclinal and lateral Modes of Motion, amotion for small to medium sized UAVs by Peddle (2005) and Cook (2007), validates the pole locations seen in Fig Kegon" 3. This speci sizeraft model is further validated in the 7 my work done by Alberts (2012) where a successful autoland As system for a fixed-wing UA was implemented. ) a eaten YER Us eer) Bey, ee Wr Eisagatoosst f ee 4, WIND MODELS Dien ule A key aspect of this project involves accurately controlling aun aircrait during crosswind conditions, and itis therefore necessary to investigate and develop accurate wind models to verify the antoland system performanee. Wind intensity the aircraft model is required for coutrol system design. is specified in the inertial frame by stating a specifie Athena Vortex Lattice (AVL) is used to determine stability azinth and elevation angle. The wind models then output ‘axis coeflicients which describe the aerodymamie character- velocities and angular rates whieh are transformed to Isties of the model aircraft. The Newton Raphson method the aireraft body axis using the Direction Cosine Matrix ‘was used to calculate trim actuator deflection angles, the (DCM). Three types of wind models were developed for requized motor thrust and angle of attack for straight and this projeet, namely, wind gust, turbulence and vertical level fight at an airspeed of ISm/s and an air density wind shear. All wind models were designed according to of 1.225 kg/m® (0 sea level, 15°C). Equations of motion specifications dleseribed by U.S. Department of Defence which govern aircraft dynamics are obtained and linearised (1980) and U.S. Department of Defence (1995) about the aforementioned trim condition so that a mathe- matical model of the aircrait-ean be realised, Equation (1), CONTROLLER ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW represents the state and input vectors associated with the UA dynamics and are represented as deviations from the Figure 4 shows a simplified layout of the controller archi- trina states tecture. A synergistic controller architecture is presented age apralt (2) im ths poper, where the alm is to desi a structure ; 7 capable of excouting any of the three landing techniques, fe 8 AT. ds 6r] or combination thereot, by simply activating various cou ‘The longitudinal states denoted by #, a, q and @ repre- — trollers at different phases of landing. The controller ac- sent airspeed, angle of attack, pitch rate and pitch angle tivation times are governed by a state machine which is respectively. ‘The lateral states denoted by 3, pr and further explained in Section 6. The controller architecture © represent sideslip angle, roll rate, yaw rate and roll consists of high-bandwidth controllers on the inner-most angle respectively. The input state vector (u) consists of Joops which generate deflection angle commands to the the elevator, fap, thrust command, aileron and rudder aerodynamie control surfaces. A successive loop elosure Fig, 2. Body axis symbolic description, deflection angles respectively. technique is then employed during the design of the outer layers of controllers. An Acceleration Based Controller 8.1 Analysis of Aireraft Dynamics (ABC) architecture is used for the inner-loop controllers to reject disturbances at the acceleration level before they The pole-zero location pertaining to the aforementioned — manifest as deviations in flightpath, heading, altioude aud state-space representation of the aircraft dynamics provide airspeed. The longitudinal controllers consist of an alti some insight regarding particular flight characteristies, tude, climb rate aud Normal Specific Acceleration Direct m drew de Brine Lift Controller (NSADLC) which makes use of both the flaps and elevator to regulate altitude. Am airspeed con- troller regulates Indicated Airspeed (IAS) by command- ing thrust generated by an electric motor. The lateral controllers consist of a guidance, roll angle and roll rate controller to regulate cross-track distance between way- points using the ailerons. A heading controller generates ‘a commanded Lateral Specific Acceleration (LSA) which the LSA controller will regulate using the rudder. The proposed Heading/LSA controller combination is not one typically used when controlling aireraft, heading, however, the inclusion of the LSA controller proved invaluable as this allowed for a seamless integration of the aeceleration- based LSA, NSADLC and roll angle controllers. Two of impeat ST analtn! Contraers altitude 4 ctimb Rate [] NsabLe FF Lateral Controller: ILE Guidance Roll Rate Heading Fig, 4. Simplified controller architect these controllers play a crucial role in controlling the air- craft under adverse weather conditions, and more spec cally during crosswind landings. The NSADLC controller is responsible for the high-bandwidth disturbance rejection characteristies required to track a glideslope accurately during turbulent and gusty wind conditions, The Head- ing/LSA controller combination is responsible for the de- crabbing and low-wing manoenvres that will be executed during the landing phase of the mission. These controllers will be discussed in more detail in the subsections to follow. 5.1 NSADLC Controller The Normal Specific Acceleration (NSA) controller, based on the work of Peddie (2008), is a method of regulating measured acceleration in the axis using the elevator control surface. The elevator ereates a pitching moment which changes the piteh angle (#) of the aircraft, thereby inereasing/decreasing the angle of attack (a) on the main liiting suriace. There is a Non-Minimuun Phase (NMP) zoro dynamic associated with this type of lift generation since the aircraft will actually start out by accelerating, in the opposite direction to what is intended. According to Pedldle (2008) this NMP zero places severe restrictions on the practically attainable upper bandwidth of the elosed- loop normal specific acceleration dynamies, Equation (2) shows the upper bound frequency limitation whieh will allow the NMP nature of the system to be ignored and ensure a practically feasible dynamic inversion of the flight path angle coupling and reduce the sensitivity of the closed-loop system, {TEAC-PopersOnLine 49-17 (2016) 170-175 2) i

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