Trajectory Planning and Control for Differentially Flat Fixed-Wing Aerial Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a real-time trajectory planning and control method for fixed-wing UAVs that leverages differential flatness to generate feasible, dynamically adaptable trajectories, validated through simulations and real-world tests.

Contribution

It presents a novel real-time planning approach using differential flatness for fixed-wing UAVs, enabling continuous replanning under dynamic conditions.

Findings

Effective trajectory generation in challenging conditions

Successful real-world flight experiments

Robustness to wind disturbances

Abstract

Efficient real-time trajectory planning and control for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles is challenging due to their non-holonomic nature, complex dynamics, and the additional uncertainties introduced by unknown aerodynamic effects. In this paper, we present a fast and efficient real-time trajectory planning and control approach for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, leveraging the differential flatness property of fixed-wing aircraft in coordinated flight conditions to generate dynamically feasible trajectories. The approach provides the ability to continuously replan trajectories, which we show is useful to dynamically account for the curvature constraint as the aircraft advances along its path. Extensive simulations and real-world experiments validate our approach, showcasing its effectiveness in generating trajectories even in challenging conditions for small FW such as wind disturbances.