Path following for the PVTOL aircraft

This article presents a solution to the path following problem for the planar vertical take-off and landing aircraft (PVTOL) which is applicable to a class of smooth Jordan curves. Our path following methodology enjoys the two properties of output invariance of the path (i.e., if the PVTOL's centre of mass is initialized on the path and its initial velocity is tangent to the path, then the PVTOL remains on the path at all future time) and boundedness of the roll dynamics. Further, our controller guarantees that, after a finite time, the time average of the roll angle is zero, and the PVTOL does not perform multiple revolutions about its longitudinal axis. Key words: path following, planar vertical take-off and landing aircraft, set stabilization, controlled invariant submanifolds, path invariance, Hamiltonian dynamics, transverse feedback linearization, virtual holonomic constraints, Jordan curves.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: AUTOMATICA
• Authors: Luca Consolini, Manfredi Maggiore, Christopher Nielsen, Mario Tosques
• Keywords: AUTOMATICA 2010, Landing Aircraft, Planar Vertical Take-off, Vertical Take-off