AOSoar: Autonomous Orographic Soaring of a Micro Air Vehicle

Utilizing wind hovering techniques of soaring birds can save energy expenditure and improve the flight endurance of micro air vehicles (MAVs). Here, we present a novel method for fully autonomous orographic soaring without a priori knowledge of the wind field. Specifically, we devise an Incremental...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Hwang, Sunyou, Remes, Bart D W, Guido C H E de Croon
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 01.08.2023
Subjects
Dynamic inversion
Flight
Hovering
Micro air vehicles (MAV)
Nonlinear dynamics
Optimization
Simulated annealing
Soaring
Throttles
Wind speed
Wind tunnels
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Utilizing wind hovering techniques of soaring birds can save energy expenditure and improve the flight endurance of micro air vehicles (MAVs). Here, we present a novel method for fully autonomous orographic soaring without a priori knowledge of the wind field. Specifically, we devise an Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion (INDI) controller with control allocation, adapting it for autonomous soaring. This allows for both soaring and the use of the throttle if necessary, without changing any gain or parameter during the flight. Furthermore, we propose a simulated-annealing-based optimization method to search for soaring positions. This enables for the first time an MAV to autonomously find a feasible soaring position while minimizing throttle usage and other control efforts. Autonomous orographic soaring was performed in the wind tunnel. The wind speed and incline of a ramp were changed during the soaring flight. The MAV was able to perform autonomous orographic soaring for flight times of up to 30 minutes. The mean throttle usage was only 0.25% for the entire soaring flight, whereas normal powered flight requires 38%. Also, it was shown that the MAV can find a new soaring spot when the wind field changes during the flight.
ISSN:2331-8422