Related papers: Computing an Aircraft's Gliding Range and Minimal …
Engine failure is a recurring emergency in General Aviation and fixed-wing UAVs, often requiring the pilot or remote operator to carry out carefully planned glides to safely reach a candidate landing strip. We tackle the problem of…
This paper presents a numerical optimization algorithm for generating approach and landing trajectories for a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) aircraft. We improve on the existing research on aircraft landing trajectory generation by…
We present a numeric method to compute the safe operating flight conditions for a helicopter such that we can ensure a safe landing in the event of a partial or total engine failure. The unsafe operating region is the complement of the…
This paper presents a framework for controlled emergency landing of a quadcopter, experiencing a rotor failure, away from sensitive areas. A complete mathematical model capturing the dynamics of the system is presented that takes the…
To operate with limited sensor horizons in unpredictable environments, autonomous robots use a receding-horizon strategy to plan trajectories, wherein they execute a short plan while creating the next plan. However, creating safe,…
This paper presents a method for incorporating control analysis into design optimization for highly-maneuverable aircraft. By studying reachable sets for aircraft dynamics, we ensure that the optimizer will take the aircraft's controlled…
Reaching fast and autonomous flight requires computationally efficient and robust algorithms. To this end, we train Guidance & Control Networks to approximate optimal control policies ranging from energy-optimal to time-optimal flight. We…
We develop data-driven algorithms for reachability analysis and control of systems with a priori unknown nonlinear dynamics. The resulting algorithms not only are suitable for settings with real-time requirements but also provide provable…
The vertical trajectory optimization for the en route descent phase is studied in the presence of both along track and cross winds, which are both modeled as functions of altitude. The flight range covers some portion of a cruise segment…
Take-off and landing are the periods of a flight where aircraft are most vulnerable to a ground based rocket attack by terrorists. While aircraft approach and depart from airports on pre-defined flight paths, there is a degree of…
This paper presents an algorithm for solving the problem of tracking smooth curves by a fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle travelling with a constant airspeed and under a constant wind disturbance. The algorithm is based on the idea of…
Autonomous unpowered flight is a challenge for control and guidance systems: all the energy the aircraft might use during flight has to be harvested directly from the atmosphere. We investigate the design of an algorithm that optimizes the…
The Aircraft Landing Problem (ALP) is one of the challenging problems in aircraft transportation and management. The challenge is to schedule the arriving aircraft in a sequence so that the cost and delays are optimized. There are various…
Safety is a critical concern for the success of urban air mobility, especially in dynamic and uncertain environments. This paper proposes a path planning algorithm based on RRT in conjunction with chance constraints in the presence of…
Let $\mathscr O$ be a set of $n$ disjoint obstacles in $\mathbb{R}^2$, $\mathscr M$ be a moving object. Let $s$ and $l$ denote the starting point and maximum path length of the moving object $\mathscr M$, respectively. Given a point $p$ in…
The next generation of Mars rotorcrafts requires on-board autonomous hazard avoidance landing. To this end, this work proposes a system that performs continuous multi-resolution height map reconstruction and safe landing spot detection.…
Controlled gliding is one of the most energetically efficient modes of transportation for natural and human powered fliers. Here we demonstrate that gliding and landing strategies with different optimality criteria can be identified through…
Gliding offers small fixed-wing UAVs extended endurance and silent operation but requires accurate energy management, especially under wind disturbances and obstacle constraints. Traditional Total Energy Control Systems based controllers…
In this paper, the trajectory planning problem for autonomous rendezvous and docking between a controlled spacecraft and a tumbling target is addressed. The use of a variable planning horizon is proposed in order to construct an appropriate…
In this paper, we investigate a special case of the static aircraft landing problem (ALP) with the objective to optimize landing sequences and landing times for a set of air planes. The problem is to land the planes on one or multiple…