Trajectory Options for MAV Navigation

Abstract

Unmanned micro air vehicle control in pitch plane is quite challenging. In order to develop an autonomous navigation scheme in pitch plane, longitudinal autopilot design for flight control modes such as take-off, landing, climb, altitude hold, etc., have been actively pursued in the literature. The aircraft trajectories that a controller generates are important to understand these modes. In this paper, it is shown that a multiple input system can offer infinitely a large number of trajectory options that can be used to develop various flight control modes and plan an MAV navigation scheme. Accordingly, the controllers are determined. An MAV example is considered and trajectory options for climb and descend modes are illustrated.