22nd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Harrogate, UK, 28 August - 1st September, 2000
Paper ICAS 2000-3.6.4

DYNAMIC CONTROL ASPECTS OF THE SHIPBOARD LAUNCH OF UNMANNED AIR VEHICLES

M. R. Crump, P. Riseborough, C. Bil, R. Hill,
R. M. I. T. University, Australia

Keywords: uav, control, launch, ship, aircraft, lqg

Fully autonomous control of the launch of UAV’s from on board a ship is a problem in the UAV control field. Current solutions are to remotely pilot the UAV until a safe operating trajectory is reached and to limit the launch window to a restricted set of conditions. It is desired to launch the UAV autonomously under a wide set of conditions, and as such a robust automatic controller is necessary. This paper will address the suitability of LQG/LTR optimal control theories to the UAV shipboard launch problem. A UAV launch with one of these ’conventional’ linear controllers is possible, however it is not the optimal solution and does not provide the degree of robustness necessary for launch in more extreme conditions. The use of this controller is simulated and launch is seen to be possible under less extreme conditions.

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