Adaptive vector field based accurate homing control of aerial delivery systems

This paper investigates the homing control problem of a flexible aerial delivery system with external wind, at-mospheric turbulence, and aerodynamic uncertainties. An accurate homing control strategy is presented, consisting of a trajectory generation algorithm and a lateral tracking controller. A high-altitude trajectory generation is de-veloped with system characteristics explicitly considered to generate the desired trajectory for the aerial delivery control system design. It significantly compensates for the altitude deviation of the existing multiphase theory based trajectory generation methodologies. A novel adaptive vector field control law is then designed to accom-plish the lateral tracking maneuvers. The key feature of the proposed method is that the complete lateral closed-loop control, including position and heading angle loops, is achieved in the presence of disturbances and dynamic uncertainties. The homing control with high landing accuracy is therefore achieved. Simulation and hardware-in-loop testing results are finally presented to validate the proposed method’s effectiveness compared to a conventional homing control scheme.