Velocity Vector Controller for Path Following of Small Fixed-wing UAVs under Wind Disturbance

Small Fixed-wing UAVs face the challenge of avoiding complex terrain obstacles during low altitude flight missions, which requires precise path-following capabilities in the presence of unpredictable wind disturbance. This paper presents a Tracking Differentiator Enhanced Proportional Integral Derivative (TDE-PID) velocity vector controller designed for fixed-wing UAVs and combines it with a velocity vector field path-following algorithm to achieve accurate path following under wind disturbance. The proposed TDE-PID controller incorporates a tracking differentiator to enhance the system’s error attenuation capability and improve the system’s disturbance rejection performance. Additionally, accurate response to the desired ground speed angle is achieved by utilizing the ground speed vector controller. The dynamic model driven simulations were conducted to validate the UAV’s path-following performance, investigating the tracking and filtering characteristics of the tracking differentiator, as well as the wind resistance of the ground speed vector controller. Numerical experiments demonstrate the superiority of the proposed TDE-PID control algorithm in path-following accuracy and robustness against wind disturbances.