"Optimal control approach to terrain following trajectory generation" by Shawn S. Stephens, Joshua A. Hess et al. 10.2514/6.2020-0859">
 

Optimal control approach to terrain following trajectory generation

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-6-2020

Abstract

This paper presents an optimal control formulation of the terrain following terrain avoidance path planning problem. The specific objective of this paper is to find the control which minimizes an aircraft’s height above terrain as the aircraft flies from one side of a mountain range to the other. The flight path must avoid terrain and keep out zones constraints while satisfying the aircraft dynamic constraints. In this problem formulation USGS terrain elevation data was used to provide accurate and realistic terrain elevation data. A simplified aircraft model was developed using load factor rate and roll acceleration as control inputs eliminating the need to compute aerodynamic forces and moments. This formulation resulted in potentially flyable minimum height above terrain paths which were computed using the optimal control software GPOPS-II and non-linear problem solver IPOPT. The resulting paths were flown in a non-linear flight simulator to qualitatively assess flyability. The results of the flyability study showed the paths were flyable by aircraft with performance capabilities greater than or equal to the performance constraints used in the optimization routine.

Comments

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Conference Session: Intelligent/Autonomous Aerial Systems I

Co-author Shawn Stephens was an AFIT PhD student at the time of this conference. (AFIT-ENY-DS-21-S-109, September 2021)

Source Publication

AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum

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