Geometric Path Following for Autonomous Dynamic Soaring

Autonomous dynamic soaring can be used to increase the endurance and range of unmanned aerial vehicles by harvesting energy from the vertical gradient of the horizontal wind. This study aims to develop a guidance and control strategy that allows precise following of an optimal dynamic-soaring path for a glider vehicle. The proposed control architecture combines a geometric path-following guidance law with an SO(3)-based attitude control law. High-fidelity six-degree-of-freedom simulation shows that the proposed method can achieve a position accuracy of 0.1 m for a glider with a wingspan of 2 m while adhering to the constraints present on a glider airframe. The high tracking accuracy makes it possible to conduct autonomous dynamic-soaring operations with patterns that were considered impossible in previous studies, such as a travel pattern mimicking the albatrosses’ dynamic-soaring pattern in close proximity to the ocean surface.