An Investigation into the use of Neighboring Optimal Control in the Solution of a Perching Problem

摘要

The applicability of Neighboring Optimal Control (NOC) in successfully perching a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) is explored. In this research, an unpowered fixed-wing aircraft is chosen as the flight vehicle that will perform a perching maneuver. The generation of the nominal perching trajectory is posed as an optimal control problem. Then, additional trajectories are generated that begin with perturbations from the initial conditions of the nominal trajectory but are still evaluated by the same cost functional used to generate the nominal trajectory. These trajectories are then used in a neighboring optimal control scheme. Results from simulation show that, for the vehicle considered, the perturbations from the nominal trajectory that the neighboring optimal control strategy is able to successfully perch are too narrow to serve as a sufficient condition for successful perching.