Flight demonstration of Unmanned Airplane for Radiation Monitoring System with preview path-tracking controller

In 2011, Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant received a severe damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake, and spread massive radioactive contaminants. Due to this tragedy, the necessity of unmanned radiation monitoring system has been increasing in Japan. Therefore, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have been jointly developing Unmanned Airplane for Radiation Monitoring System, in short UARMS, as one of such systems. The basic flight controller of UARMS was designed and the usefulness of UARMS has already been well illustrated by demonstration flight in Fukushima; however path-tracking controller has been required for precise monitoring because radiation monitoring is planned to be conducted not only in town areas but also in mountain areas. To this end, the path-tracking controller is designed as a preview controller with its gains being optimized off-line by using multiple model approach for robust control performance. Demonstration flight was conducted in Fukushima to confirm the integrity of the designed preview path-tracking controller.