Vector field guidance for three-dimensional curved path following with fixed-wing UAVs

This paper investigates the three-dimensional (3D) curved path following problem using fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the presence of constant wind disturbance. Vector field based approaches are used as the solution. Two vector fields are first developed, one is the tangent vector field based on path tangent vector and coordinate transformation, and the other is the combined vector field based on the combination of a conservative vector field and a solenoidal vector field. A unified jointly saturated course rate and saturated climb rate controller is designed based on the proposed vector fields. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.