Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
College/Unit
Statler College of Engineering and Mining Resources
Department/Program/Center
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Abstract
Autonomous formation flight is a key approach for reducing energy cost and managing traffic in future high density airspace. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has allowed low-budget and low-risk validation of autonomous formation flight concepts. This paper discusses the implementation and flight testing of nonlinear dynamic inversion (NLDI) controllers for close formation flight (CFF) using two distinct UAV platforms: a set of fixed wing aircraft named “Phastball” and a set of quadrotors named “NEO.” Experimental results show that autonomous CFF with approximately 5-wingspan separation is achievable with a pair of low-cost unmanned Phastball research aircraft. Simulations of the quadrotor flight also validate the design of the NLDI controller for the NEO quadrotors.
Digital Commons Citation
Rice, Caleb; Gu, Yu; Chao, Haiyang; Larrabee, Trenton; Gururajan, Srikanth; Napolitano, Marcello; Mandal, Tanmay; and Rhudy, Matthew, "Autonomous Close Formation Flight Control with Fixed Wing and Quadrotor Test Beds" (2016). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2343.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2343
Source Citation
Rice, C., Gu, Y., Chao, H., Larrabee, T., Gururajan, S., Napolitano, M., … Rhudy, M. (2016). Autonomous Close Formation Flight Control with Fixed Wing and Quadrotor Test Beds. International Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 2016, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/9517654
Comments
Copyright © 2016 Caleb Rice et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.