Abstract
Path planning is considered for the aerial refueling of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The objective of the path planning considered in this study is to make a tanker and a UAV rendezvous at a preplanned point. To avoid abrupt maneuver of the UAV while minimizing energy consumption, rendezvous path planning as well as a guidance law is proposed. The proposed rendezvous path planning is constructed in two phases: approach phase which is the phase from the initial position to the transition, and rendezvous phase which is the phase from the transition to the preplanned point for rendezvous. The UAV performs speed control using the shape of the path and acceleration commands, and finally the UAV maintains the same velocity as the tanker to accomplish a refueling mission. Aerial refueling mission is generally performed between one tanker and multiple aircraft, and, therefore, a preplanned point is assigned to each UAV for the rendezvous. Numerical simulation is performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.
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Yoon, Y., Kim, M. & Kim, Y. Three-Dimensional Path Planning for Aerial Refueling Between One Tanker and Multiple UAVs. Int. J. Aeronaut. Space Sci. 19, 1027–1040 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42405-018-0098-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42405-018-0098-z