Proportional Navigation (PN) Based Tracking of Ground Targets by Quadrotor UAVs

Volume 1: Aerial Vehicles; Aerospace Control; Alternative Energy; Automotive Control Systems; Battery Systems; Beams and Flexible Structures; Biologically-Inspired Control and its Applications; Bio-Medical and Bio-Mechanical Systems; Biomedical Robots and Rehab; Bipeds and Locomotion; Control Design Methods for Adv. Powertrain Systems and Components; Control of Adv. Combustion Engines, Building Energy Systems, Mechanical Systems; Control, Monitoring, and Energy Harvesting of Vibratory Systems ◽

10.1115/dscc2013-3887 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ruoyu Tan ◽

Manish Kumar

Keyword(s):

Target Tracking ◽

Proportional Navigation ◽

Tracking Method ◽

Maneuvering Targets ◽

Time Optimal ◽

Aerial Vehicle ◽

Quadrotor Uavs ◽

The One ◽

Rotary Wing ◽

Guidance Laws

This paper addresses the problem of controlling a rotary wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) tracking a target moving on ground. The target tracking problem by UAVs has received much attention recently and several techniques have been developed in literature most of which have been applied to fixed wing aircrafts. The use of quadrotor UAVs, the subject of this paper, for target tracking presents several challenges especially for highly maneuvering targets since the development of time-optimal controller (required if target is maneuvering fast) for quadrotor UAVs is extremely difficult due to highly non-linear dynamics. The primary contribution of this paper is the development of a proportional navigation (PN) based method and its implementation on quad-rotor UAVs to track moving ground target. The PN techniques are known to be time-optimal in nature and have been used in literature for developing guidance systems for missiles. There are several types of guidance laws that come within the broad umbrella of the PN method. The paper compares the performance of these guidance laws for their application on quadrotors and chooses the one that performs the best. Furthermore, to apply this method for target tracking instead of the traditional objective of target interception, a switching strategy has also been designed. The method has been compared with respect to the commonly used Proportional Derivative (PD) method for target tracking. The experiments and numerical simulations performed using maneuvering targets show that the proposed tracking method not only carries out effective tracking but also results into smaller oscillations and errors when compared to the widely used PD tracking method.

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Investigation into Air Interception Guidance Algorithms for Autonomous Aerial Hard Docking of Dissimilar Platforms

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.629.214 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 629 ◽

pp. 214-218

Author(s):

Omar Kassim Ariff ◽

E. Salami ◽

M.T. Ahmad ◽

T.H. Go

Keyword(s):

Guidance System ◽

Missile Guidance ◽

Proportional Navigation ◽

Terminal Constraints ◽

Rigid Connection ◽

The Moment ◽

Further Development ◽

Rotary Wing ◽

Guidance Laws ◽

Specific Scenario

Autonomous aerial hard docking is the process where an aircraft approaches and forms a rigid connection with another aircraft. After the docking process is complete, it is not necessary for the lift and propulsion system of the docked aircraft to be operating. Docking allows the larger aircraft to carry the small aircraft outside its airframe, thereby extending the range of endurance of the smaller aircraft. In this paper, we investigate specific scenario where docking occurs between a rotary wing aircraft and a fixed wing aircraft. To perform the above procedure, a guidance system on each platform has to ensure interception while satisfying the primary interception condition of velocity vector co-linearity at the moment of intercept of the two trajectories or flight paths. Pursuit guidance and proportional navigation were assessed as candidates for further development for the terminal docking phase. Since the platforms are in quasi-perfect knowledge of each other, the pursuer evader scenario is replaced by the pursuer-pursuer scenario. The novelty of this work lies in the formulation of terminal constraints, as well as the findings obtained. This paper concludes that contrary to the missile guidance scenario, pursuit based guidance laws provide superior baseline laws from which AAHD guidance and navigation laws can be developed.

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Multiple Drone Navigation and Formation Using Selective Target Tracking-Based Computer Vision

Electronics ◽

10.3390/electronics10172125 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (17) ◽

pp. 2125

Author(s):

Jatin Upadhyay ◽

Abhishek Rawat ◽

Dipankar Deb

Keyword(s):

Computer Vision ◽

Target Tracking ◽

Line Of Sight ◽

Tracking Accuracy ◽

Ground Station ◽

Image Center ◽

Aerial Vehicle ◽

Using Data ◽

The One ◽

The Individual

Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles work seamlessly within the GPS signal range, but their performance deteriorates in GPS-denied regions. This paper presents a unique collaborative computer vision-based approach for target tracking as per the image’s specific location of interest. The proposed method tracks any object without considering its properties like shape, color, size, or pattern. It is required to keep the target visible and line of sight during the tracking. The method gives freedom of selection to a user to track any target from the image and form a formation around it. We calculate the parameters like distance and angle from the image center to the object for the individual drones. Among all the drones, the one with a significant GPS signal strength or nearer to the target is chosen as the master drone to calculate the relative angle and distance between an object and other drones considering approximate Geo-location. Compared to actual measurements, the results of tests done on a quadrotor UAV frame achieve 99% location accuracy in a robust environment inside the exact GPS longitude and latitude block as GPS-only navigation methods. The individual drones communicate to the ground station through a telemetry link. The master drone calculates the parameters using data collected at ground stations. Various formation flying methods help escort other drones to meet the desired objective with a single high-resolution first-person view (FPV) camera. The proposed method is tested for Airborne Object Target Tracking (AOT) aerial vehicle model and achieves higher tracking accuracy.

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Over-flight and standoff tracking of a ground target with a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle based on a unified sliding mode guidance law

Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control ◽

10.1177/01423312211037618 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 014233122110376

Author(s):

Chuanjian Lin ◽

Jingping Shi ◽

Yongxi Lyu ◽

Yueping Wang

Keyword(s):

Target Tracking ◽

Sliding Mode ◽

Practical Application ◽

Stationary Target ◽

Guidance Law ◽

Ground Target ◽

Aerial Vehicle ◽

Standoff Tracking ◽

The Stability ◽

Guidance Laws

Target tracking of ground targets is a significant application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in civil and military fields. There are two common modes for target tracking: over-flight tracking and standoff tracking. Each tracking method has a wide application prospect. However, many researchers have studied these two tracking methods separately and designed different guidance laws, which is not conducive to practical application. In this paper, a new guidance law based on sliding mode guidance (SMG) is proposed for tracking a stationary target, which is compatible with the two tracking modes. The stability and finite-time convergence of the guidance law are proved. Then, the guidance is extended to tracking a moving target. The numerical simulations are carried out for the tracking problems of ground targets, and the results verify the effectiveness of the proposed guidance law.

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Tracking of Ground Mobile Targets by Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned Systems ◽

10.1142/s2301385014500101 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 02 (02) ◽

pp. 157-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Ruoyu Tan ◽

Manish Kumar

Keyword(s):

Numerical Simulations ◽

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽

Positional Error ◽

Proportional Navigation ◽

Switching Strategy ◽

Maneuvering Targets ◽

Aerial Vehicles ◽

Mobile Target ◽

Guidance Laws ◽

Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper focuses on the development of control and guidance laws for quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to track maneuvering ground targets. Proportional Derivative (PD) control law is a popular choice to be used as a tracking controller for quadrotors, but it is often inefficient due to practical acceleration constraints and a number of parameters that need to be tuned. The paper proposes a Proportional Navigation (PN)-based switching strategy to address the problem of mobile target tracking. The experiments and numerical simulations performed using nonmaneuvering and maneuvering targets show that the proposed PN-based switching strategy not only carries out effective tracking but also results into smaller oscillations and errors when compared to the widely used PD tracking method. The proposed PN-based switching strategy presents an important question with regard to when the switching should happen that would minimize the positional error between the UAV and the target. An optimal switching strategy, which is based on the analytical solutions of the PN and PD methods, is proposed. The numerical simulations not only validate the theoretical results with regard to the optimality of the proposed method for both nonmaneuvering and maneuvering targets but also demonstrate that the proposed method is robust to measurement noise.

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Polynomial guidance law for impact angle control with a seeker look angle limit

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part G Journal of Aerospace Engineering ◽

10.1177/0954410019890808 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 234 (3) ◽

pp. 857-870

Author(s):

Zhou Zhiming ◽

Xiaoxian Yao

Keyword(s):

Impact Angle ◽

Line Of Sight ◽

Time Varying ◽

Proportional Navigation ◽

Guidance Law ◽

Maneuvering Targets ◽

Nonlinear Simulations ◽

Impact Angles ◽

The Impact ◽

Guidance Laws

In this paper, the impact angle control problem is investigated by applying the polynomial shaping method. By shaping the light-of-sight angle with relative range, a guidance law called range polynomial guidance is proposed, and the coefficients are determined by boundary conditions. The range polynomial guidance law can be applied to maneuvering targets. By profiling the seeker look angle with the light-of-sight angle, a guidance law called line-of-sight polynomial guidance is developed for impact angle control under a limitation on the seeker look angle. The line-of-sight polynomial guidance law is also effective in intercepting a non-maneuvering moving target at the desired impact angle. Guidance laws with different gain sets are discussed in this paper. The proposed guidance laws take the form of proportional navigation with a time-varying navigation gain. Nonlinear simulations are performed to validate the efficacy of the proposed guidance laws in various engagement conditions. Comparison with other studies demonstrates the practicality and flexibility of the proposed guidance laws in the design of desired impact angles and maximum look angles.

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The New Evolution for SIA Rotorcraft UAV Project

Journal of Robotics ◽

10.1155/2010/743010 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2010 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Juntong Qi ◽

Dalei Song ◽

Lei Dai ◽

Jianda Han ◽

Yuechao Wang

Keyword(s):

Control Method ◽

Test Bed ◽

Advanced Control ◽

Autonomous Mode ◽

Chinese Academy Of Sciences ◽

Aerial Vehicle ◽

Active Modeling ◽

Rotorcraft Uav ◽

The One ◽

Academy Of Sciences

This paper describes recent research on the design, implement, and testing of a new small-scaled rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (RUAV) system—ServoHeli-40. A turbine-powered UAV weighted less than 15 kg was designed, and its major components were tested at the Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang, China. The aircraft was designed to reach a top speed of more than 20 mps, flying a distance of more than 10 kilometers, and it is going to be used as a test-bed for experimentally evaluating advanced control methodologies dedicated on improving the maneuverability, reliability, as well as autonomy of RUAV. Sensors and controller are all onboard. The full system has been tested successfully in the autonomous mode using the multichannel active modeling controller. The results show that in a real windy environment the rotorcraft UAV can follow the trajectory which was assigned by the ground control station exactly, and the new control method is obviously more effective than the one in the past year's research.

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