TY - JOUR
T1 - Online Motion Planning for Fixed-Wing Aircraft in Precise Automatic Landing on Mobile Platforms
AU - Liang, Jianjian
AU - Wang, Shoukun
AU - Wang, Bo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/5
Y1 - 2023/5
N2 - This paper proposes the creative idea that an unmanned fixed-wing aircraft should automatically adjust its 3D landing trajectory online to land on a given touchdown point, instead of following a pre-designed fixed glide slope angle or a landing path composed of two waypoints. A fixed-wing aircraft is a typical under-actuated and nonholonomic constrained system, and its landing procedure—which involves complex kinematic and dynamic constraints—is challenging, especially in some scenarios such as landing on an aircraft carrier, which has a runway that is very short and narrow. The conventional solution of setting a very conservative landing path in advance and controlling the aircraft to follow it without dynamic adjustment of the reference path has not performed satisfactorily due to the variation in initial states and widespread environmental uncertainties. The motion planner shown in this study can adjust an aircraft’s landing trajectory online and guide the aircraft to land at a given fixed or moving point while conforming to the strict constraints. Such a planner is composed of two parts: one is used to generate a series of motion primitives which conform to the dynamic constraints, and the other is used to evaluate those primitives and choose the best one for the aircraft to execute. In this paper, numerical simulations demonstrate that when given a landing configuration composed of position, altitude, and direction, the planner can provide a feasible guidance path for the aircraft to land accurately.
AB - This paper proposes the creative idea that an unmanned fixed-wing aircraft should automatically adjust its 3D landing trajectory online to land on a given touchdown point, instead of following a pre-designed fixed glide slope angle or a landing path composed of two waypoints. A fixed-wing aircraft is a typical under-actuated and nonholonomic constrained system, and its landing procedure—which involves complex kinematic and dynamic constraints—is challenging, especially in some scenarios such as landing on an aircraft carrier, which has a runway that is very short and narrow. The conventional solution of setting a very conservative landing path in advance and controlling the aircraft to follow it without dynamic adjustment of the reference path has not performed satisfactorily due to the variation in initial states and widespread environmental uncertainties. The motion planner shown in this study can adjust an aircraft’s landing trajectory online and guide the aircraft to land at a given fixed or moving point while conforming to the strict constraints. Such a planner is composed of two parts: one is used to generate a series of motion primitives which conform to the dynamic constraints, and the other is used to evaluate those primitives and choose the best one for the aircraft to execute. In this paper, numerical simulations demonstrate that when given a landing configuration composed of position, altitude, and direction, the planner can provide a feasible guidance path for the aircraft to land accurately.
KW - fixed-wing aircraft
KW - mobile platforms
KW - modified dynamic window approach (M-DWA)
KW - motion planning
KW - precise automatic landing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85160228550&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/drones7050324
DO - 10.3390/drones7050324
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85160228550
SN - 2504-446X
VL - 7
JO - Drones
JF - Drones
IS - 5
M1 - 324
ER -