Control performance analysis for autonomous close formation flight experiments

Author

Rice, Crispin ; Yu Gu ; Haiyang Chao ; Larrabee, Trenton ; Gururajan, Srikanth ; Napolitano, M. ; Mandal, Tanmay ; Rhudy, Matthew

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. & Aerosp. Eng. (MAE), West Virginia Univ. (WVU), Morgantown, WV, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

27-30 May 2014

Firstpage

1175

Lastpage

1180

Abstract

Close Formation Flight is a key potential approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and managing traffic in future high density airspace. This paper discusses the implementation and flight testing of a formation flight controller. Experimental results show that an autonomous close formation flight with approximately 5-wingspan separation is achievable with a pair of low-cost unmanned research aircraft.

Keywords

aircraft testing; autonomous aerial vehicles; 5-wingspan separation; air traffic management; autonomous close formation flight experiments; control performance analysis; flight testing; formation flight controller; greenhouse gas emission reduction; high density airspace; low-cost unmanned research aircraft; unmanned aerial vehicles; Aerospace control; Aerospace electronics; Aircraft; Aircraft propulsion; Educational institutions; Geometry; Unmanned aerial vehicles; UAV; close formation flight; flight control; flight testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2014 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICUAS.2014.6842372

Filename

6842372