Guiding vector fields in Paparazzi autopilot

TL;DR

This paper presents two guidance vector field algorithms implemented in Paparazzi autopilot for path tracking, suitable for fixed-wing and rotorcraft aerial vehicles, with practical implementation details and experimental validation.

Contribution

It introduces two lightweight guiding vector field algorithms for path tracking in Paparazzi, supporting implicit and parametric path descriptions, and demonstrates their application and coordination capabilities.

Findings

Algorithms are computationally light and suitable for microcontrollers.

Guidance methods are applicable to fixed-wing and rotorcraft vehicles.

Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the guidance systems.

Abstract

This article is a technical report on the two different guidance systems based on vector fields that can be found in Paparazzi, a free sw/hw autopilot. Guiding vector fields allow autonomous vehicles to track paths described by the user mathematically. In particular, we allow two descriptions of the path with an implicit or a parametric function. Each description is associated with its corresponding guiding vector field algorithm. The implementations of the two algorithms are light enough to be run in a modern microcontroller. We will cover the basic theory on how they work, how a user can implement its own paths in Paparazzi, how to exploit them to coordinate multiple vehicles, and we finish with some experimental results. Although the presented implementation is focused on fixed-wing aircraft, the guidance is also applicable to other kinds of aerial vehicles such as rotorcraft.