Robust path following using a small fixed-wing airplane for aerial research

This paper describes a navigation algorithm for small fixed-wing airplanes so as to perform path following. The wind gusts need to be taken into account as they play a key role in small prototypes, being the main disturbance when flights are performed. To solve this issue, we use an algorithm known in the literature as carrot-chasing, which includes wind estimates. A Lyapunov stability based control strategy is proposed in order to improve robustness. The convergence of the position to the desired path is proved theoretically and tested in Matlab simulations. A review of the testbed and the expected future work is presented.