Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Nonlinear Modular 3D Trajectory Control of a General Aviation Aircraft

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Advances in Aerospace Guidance, Navigation and Control

  • 2320 Accesses

Abstract

The ongoing automation of waypoint navigation due to the emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles demands for precise tracking of increasingly dynamical trajectories. For this purpose, a trajectory control approach is presented in this paper, employing nonlinear dynamic inversion and second-order nonlinear error dynamics of the position error. The control module is part of an integrated auto-flight control system, which is briefly introduced in this paper. The main focus is laid on the derivation of the error dynamics along with its dynamic inversion. As the speed is controlled by additional airspeed control, the trajectory controller is further reduced to drive the position error in 3D to zero. Finally, illustrative examples show the controller’s performance with respect to a linear controller and the influence of significant wind.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Beard RW, Kingston D, Quigley M, Snyder D, Christiansen R, Johnson W, McLain T, Goodrich M (2005) Autonomous vehicle technologies for small fixed-wing uavs. J Aerosp Comput Inf Commun 2(1):92–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Low CB (2010) A trajectory tracking control design for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles. In: IEEE multi-conference on systems and control, pp 2118–2123

    Google Scholar 

  3. Ren W, Beard RW (2004) Trajectory tracking for unmanned air vehicles with velocity and heading rate constraints. IEEE Trans Control Syst Technol 12(5):706–716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Subbarao K, Ahmed M (2014) Nonlinear guidance and control laws for three-dimensional target tracking applied to unmanned aerial vehicles. J Aerosp Eng 27(3):604–610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Nelson DR, Barber DB, McLain TW, Beard RW (2007) Vector field path following for miniature air vehicles. IEEE Trans Robot 23(3):519–529

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zhu S, Wang D, Low CB (2013) Ground target tracking using uav with input constraints. J Intell Robot Syst 69(1–4):417–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Beard RW, Ferrin J, Humpherys J (2014) Fixed wing uav path following in wind with input constraints. IEEE Trans Control Syst Technol :1

    Google Scholar 

  8. Zhufeng Xie, Yuanqing Xia, Mengyin Fu (2011) Robust trajectory-tracking method for uav using nonlinear dynamic inversion. In: IEEE 5th international conference on cybernetics and intelligent systems (CIS) pp 93–98

    Google Scholar 

  9. Pashilkar AA, Ismail S, Ayyagari R, Sundararajan N (2013) Design of a nonlinear dynamic inversion controller for trajectory following and maneuvering for fixed wing aircraft. In: IEEE symposium on computational intelligence for security and defense applications (CISDA) pp 64–71

    Google Scholar 

  10. Oliveira T, Encarnação P (2013) Ground target tracking control system for unmanned aerial vehicles. J Intell Robot Syst 69(1–4):373–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Slotine J-JE, Li W (1991) Applied Nonlinear Control. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Khalil HK (2002) Nonlinear Systems, 3rd edn. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Schatz SP, Holzapfel F (2014) Modular trajectory, path following controller using nonlinear error dynamics. In: IEEE international aerospace electronics and remote sensing technology (ICARES) pp 157–163

    Google Scholar 

  14. Schatz SP, Schneider V, Karlsson E, Holzapfel F et al (2016) Flightplan flight tests of an experimental da42 general aviation aircraft. In: The 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics, and Vision

    Google Scholar 

  15. Krause C, Holzapfel F (2016) Designing a system automation for a novel uav demonstrator. In: The 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics, and Vision

    Google Scholar 

  16. Karlsson E, Schatz SP et al (2016) Automatic flight path control of an experimental da42 general aviation aircraft. In: The 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics, and Vision

    Google Scholar 

  17. Karlsson E, Gabrys A, Schatz SP, Holzapfel F (2016) Dynamic flight path control coupling for energy and maneuvering integrity. In: The 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics, and Vision

    Google Scholar 

  18. Schneider V, Mumm N, Holzapfel F (2015) Trajectory generation for an integrated mission management system. In: 2014 IEEE International Aerospace Electronics and Remote Sensing Technology (ICARES). IEEE

    Google Scholar 

  19. Schneider V, Piprek P, Schatz SP et al (2016) Online trajectory generation using clothoid segments. In: The 14th international conference on control, automation, robotics, and vision

    Google Scholar 

  20. Meek DS, Walton DJ (2004) A note on finding clothoids. J Comput Appl Math 170(2):433–453

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. Henrie J, Wilde D (2007) Planning continuous curvature paths using constructive polylines. J Aerosp Comput Inf Commun 4(12):1143–1157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Wilde DK (2009) Computing clothoid segments for trajectory generation. In: IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems (IROS) pp 2440–2445

    Google Scholar 

  23. Lavretsky E, Wise KA (2013) Robust and Adaptive Control: With Aerospace Applications, Ser. Advanced textbooks in control and signal processing. Springer, New York

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Andry AN, Shapiro EY, Chung J (1983) Eigenstructure assignment for linear systems. IEEE Trans Aerosp Electron Syst AES–19(5):711–729

    Google Scholar 

  25. Etkin B, Reid LD (1996) Dynamics of Flight: Stability and Control, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  26. Stengel RF (2004) Flight Dynamics. Princeton University Press, Princeton and NJ

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to offer my special thanks to my colleague Volker Schneider, who is responsible for the trajectory generation module, which was also used to generate the figures of this paper. Furthermore, I would also like to extend my thanks to Agnes Gabrys, Erik Karlsson, and Alexander Zollitsch, who provided the inner loop, the autopilot module including energy protections, and the high-fidelity simulation model, respectively.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Flight System Dynamics, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748, Garching Bei München, Germany

    Simon P. Schatz & Florian Holzapfel

Authors
  1. Simon P. Schatz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Florian Holzapfel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon P. Schatz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Avionics and Control Systems Department, Rzeszów University of Technology, Rzeszów, Poland

    Bogusław Dołęga

  2. The Institute of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

    Robert Głębocki

  3. Avionics and Control Systems Department, Rzeszów University of Technology, Rzeszów, Poland

    Damian Kordos

  4. The Institute of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

    Marcin Żugaj

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Schatz, S.P., Holzapfel, F. (2018). Nonlinear Modular 3D Trajectory Control of a General Aviation Aircraft. In: Dołęga, B., Głębocki, R., Kordos, D., Żugaj, M. (eds) Advances in Aerospace Guidance, Navigation and Control. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65283-2_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65283-2_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65282-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65283-2

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation