A Guidance Method for Fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based on Model Predictive Control

To deal with the challenging problem of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path following, a guidance method based on tube-based model predictive control (MPC) is designed in this paper. A fixed-wing UAV is a typical nonholonomic constrained and under-actuated system, and its dynamic model is nonlinear, high order, and too mathematically complex to be used in control design. To overcome the shortcomings of traditional feedback controller that is not foreseeable and lacks of optimality, model based method is used to take the future states into account. The simplified kinetic model of fixed-wing UAV is used to design the guidance algorithm, and a low-level controller is used to follow the commands generated by the up-level guidance algorithm. Hardware in the loop simulations are carried out and demonstrate that the tube-based MPC guidance algorithm can command the fixed-wing UAV to follow a series of waypoints smoothly and accurately.