Longitudinal Modelling and Trajectory Tracking Control of a Solar Powered Communication/Remote-Sensing UAV

This paper firstly sorts out the energy flow relationship and formulates the motion model of the solar powered communication/remote-sensing UAV. Based on the Newton's second law, the longitudinal three-degree-of-freedom nonlinear kinematics and dynamics equations of the solar powered UAV are established. By utilizing the multi-loop PID control algorithm, the height and speed controllers are designed to track the reference height and speed. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to verify the trajectory tracking performances.