Autolanding Guidance Control for an Unpowered UAV

Unpowered autolanding is the final phase of a safe landing after a UAV loses power. This paper puts forward a guidance method for directing unpowered autolanding of a UAV. First, the autolanding track which consists of a line and arc is given. Second, the line and arc guidance laws are designed respectively, and then the guidance law is transformed into a second-order viscous system with damping and oscillation, while the characteristic of this system is linked to the natural frequency of this system. The authors design an adaptive scheme for the guidance law in order to improve the convergence time and the anti-wind ability of this system. Finally, the proposed method is employed to the process of an unpowered autolanding, and the simulation is accomplished under the environments without wind and light disturbance crosswind. The results of the simulation show that UAV could accomplish a safe landing without wind and with light disturbance crosswind.