The fundamental objective of autopilot design for missile systems is to provide stability with satisfactory performance and robustness over the whole range of flight conditions throughout the entire flight envelope that missiles are required to operate in, during all probable engagements. Depending on the control mode (skid-to-turn or bank-to-turn), intercept scenario (such as surface to surfac...

This chapter describes a continuing research on design and verification of the autopilot system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) through hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation. UAVs have the characteristics of small volume, light weight, low cost in manufacture, high agility and high maneuverability without the restriction of human body physical loading. Equipped with the on-board autopilot ...

A new autopilot design for bank-to-turn (BTT) missiles is presented. In the design of autopilot, a ridge Gaussian neural network with local learning capability and fewer tuning parameters than Gaussian neural networks is proposed to model the controlled nonlinear systems. We prove that the proposed ridge Gaussian neural network, which can be a universal approximator, equals the expansions of ro...

Presently, flight systems designed to perform payload -centric maneuvers require preconstructed procedures and special hand-tuned guidance modes. To enable intelligent maneuvering via strong coupling between the goals of payload-directed flight and the autopilot functions, there exists a need to rethink traditional autopilot design and function. Research into payload directed flight examines se...

This paper studies the trajectory-tracking strategy for unmanned aerial vehicles where the autopilot is involved in the feedback control. The trajectory-tracking controller is derived based on a generalized design model using Lyapunov based backstepping. The augmentations of the design model and trajectory-tracking controller are conducted to involve the autopilot in the closed-loop system. Lya...

Based on a biorobotic approach developed in our laboratory over the past 25 years, we have designed and built several terrestrial and aerial vehicles controlling their position and speed on the basis of optic flow cues (Franceschini et al. 1992, Viollet and Franceschini 1999, Ruffier and Franceschini 2005, Franceschini et al. 2007, Kerhuel et al. 2010). In particular, in our project on the auto...

In this paper, we derive the sufficient and necessary stability conditions for rolling missiles with velocity orientation autopilot. For mathematical derivation, linear time-invariant models are established. Structures of autopilot nonrolling introduced. addition, effects structure parameters on discussed. Furthermore, methods associated actuator dynamics, static decoupling presented to improve...

– A Roll Position demand (as well as Roll Position Control) missile autopilot design methodology for a class of guided missile, based on state feedback, Ackermann pole-placement and reduced order Das & Ghosal observer (DGO), is proposed. The open loop unstable model of the roll control (or roll position demand) autopilot has been stabilized by using pole placement and state feedback. The non-mi...

We have developed a visually based autopilot which is able to make an air vehicle automatically take off, cruise and land, while reacting appropriately to wind disturbances (head wind and tail wind). This autopilot consists of a visual control system that adjusts the thrust so as to keep the downward optic flow (OF) at a constant value. This autopilot is therefore based on an optic flow regulat...

This paper presents the autonomous micro aerial vehicle pilot, a new autopilot platform weighing 6.25 g and measuring 11.3 cm2, specifically designed for use on micro/miniature aerial vehicle mobile sensing platforms. An overview of the hardware, firmware, ground station, and validation testing used to demonstrate this autopilot as a viable research instrument for atmospheric thermodynamic sens...