Guidance of an Autonomous Glider based on Proportional Navigation and Virtual Targets: A Hybrid Dynamical Systems Approach

摘要

This paper presents a methodology for the guidance and control of an unmanned gliding aerial vehicle in the vertical plane of flight. The proposed method is based on proportional navigation (PN), enhanced by the definition of discrete virtual targets that guide the thrust-less vehicle from an initial state to a desired destination. First, optimal flight trajectories obtained through a non-linear dynamic optimization algorithm are used to explore the capabilities of the open-loop system. In light of these results, direct PN to the final target is shown to be ineffective for the system under study. Subsequently, virtual targets are defined along the optimal trajectories, thus improving the performance of the system in terms of range, final target capturing precision, and orientation control at the point of capture. The controlled system is then formulated as a Hybrid Dynamical System, allowing for robust simulation of its continuous and discrete dynamics, as well as simple implementation of the feedback law in practical applications, even with limited computational resources. All of these concepts are illustrated through various simulation results.