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Path‐following control for small fixed‐wing unmanned aerial vehicles under wind disturbances
Author(s) -
Liu Cunjia,
McAree Owen,
Chen WenHua
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of robust and nonlinear control
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1099-1239
pISSN - 1049-8923
DOI - 10.1002/rnc.2938
Subject(s) - fixed wing , control theory (sociology) , controller (irrigation) , observer (physics) , computer science , path (computing) , nonlinear system , stability (learning theory) , control engineering , control (management) , wing , engineering , aerospace engineering , artificial intelligence , agronomy , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning , biology , programming language
SUMMARY This paper presents an alternative method of designing a guidance controller for a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) so as to perform path following under wind disturbances. The wind effects acting on UAVs need to be taken into account and eventually eliminated. To solve this problem, we adopted a disturbance observer‐based control approach. The wind information is first estimated by a nonlinear disturbance observer, then it is incorporated into the nominal path following controller to formulate a composite controller that is able to compensate wind influences. The globally asymptotic stability of the composite controller is illustrated through theoretical analysis, whereas its performance is evaluated by various simulations including the one with software‐in‐the‐loop. Initial flight tests using a small fixed‐wing UAV are carried out to demonstrate its actual performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.