Preview Control Approach for Laser-Range-Finder-Based Terrain Following

This paper addresses the design and performance analysis for a preview control laser range finder (LRF) based terrain-following system for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles. The complexity and performance of such systems depend predominantly on the chosen concept and the layout of its hardware components, mainly its sensors. The related estimation and control algorithms designed for the terrain-following task have to further address system uncertainties and disturbances. In this paper, a laser range sensor based terrain-following system is proposed. The various error factors are discussed and the error propagation through the system is analyzed. The resulting error model is first verified using a numerical simulation, Subsequently, it is utilized to quantify the system tracking error, outline the preferred values for various system parameters in order to achieve higher terrain-following performance, and finally suggest the optimal pointing angle for the LRF. The suggested analysis approach and results grant an effective analytical method for designing such terrain-following system and evaluating its performance.