Flight test results for an improved line of sight guidance law for UAVs

This paper presents flight test results of a new line-of-sight guidance law used onboard the University of California Santa Cruz´ UAV. The architecture, as implemented onboard the UAV´s autopilot, is presented and its key advantages are discussed. To show the guidance law´s versatility, the paper presents its usage in three common scenarios that arise when working with small UAVs: (1) Navigation of straight-line waypoint arrays, (2) circular orbiting above a given point of interest, and (3) return to base, either as a safety measure or as an end-of-mission order. Flight test results for these three scenarios are presented and discussed.