Improving autonomous soaring via energy state estimation and extremum seeking control

Shawn C. Daugherty, Jack W. Langelaany

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper introduces autonomous soaring methods that enhance the performance of small autonomous gliders in a thermal soaring environment. Thermal centering control is aided by an asymmetric Savitzky-Golay filter that computes estimates of total energy, rate of change of total energy and the second derivative of total energy using polynomial approximations over a moving time window. Climb rate in the thermal is maximized using extremum seeking control with turn radius as the varying parameter. A simulation environment based on a commercially available multiplayer soaring simulator is described, with low level aircraft control implemented on an Arduino Mega single board computer. Higher level control is implemented on a laptop computer that communicates with the Arduino autopilot over a serial link. The utility of the thermal soaring controller is demonstrated in this high fidelity simulation: stable thermal centering and good convergence to a maximum climb rate is observed, with climb performance of the new controllers exceeding previous methods.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
EventAIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference 2014 - SciTech Forum and Exposition 2014 - National Harbor, MD, United States
Duration: Jan 13 2014Jan 17 2014

Publication series

NameAIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference

Other

OtherAIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference 2014 - SciTech Forum and Exposition 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNational Harbor, MD
Period1/13/141/17/14

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Control and Systems Engineering

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