Alternate Strategies for Optimal Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Thermaling
| Autor: | Kevin D. Jones, Isaac Kaminer, Vladimir Dobrokhodov, Claire Walton |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.), Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
020301 aerospace & aeronautics
0209 industrial biotechnology Airspeed Glider Aerospace Engineering 02 engineering and technology Optimal control Nonlinear programming 020901 industrial engineering & automation Altitude 0203 mechanical engineering Thermal Environmental science Zero-lift drag coefficient Energy harvesting Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics Physics::Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics Marine engineering |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Aircraft. 55:2347-2356 |
| ISSN: | 1533-3868 0021-8669 |
| Popis: | The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/1.C035018 This paper investigates optimal glider trajectories for gaining altitude from thermal updraft columns (“thermaling”). Thermal updraft columns provide a natural energy resource that can be beneficial for enabling long-term autonomous soaring objectives. In this paper, computational optimal control is used to investigate possible alternatives to the common strategy of circularly orbiting the thermal to harvest potential energy. The Legendre–Gauss–Lobatto pseudospectral method is applied to a simulated glider in multiple scenarios over a range of thermal sizes, thermal intensities, and glider start conditions. Results for the Gedeon thermal model, which simulates dropoff in wind intensity with distance from the thermal core and additionally incorporates external downdrafts, are considered. These are then compared in performance to centered circular orbiting as well as two other alternate heuristic strategies suggested by the optimal control results: off-centered circular orbiting and “figure eights”. Results suggest benefits to using alternatives to centered circular orbiting when encountering small-diameter thermal updrafts. Results also support the utility of centered circular orbiting for medium- to large-diameter thermals while providing new insights into the optimal parameters of the circular orbit. U.S. Office of Naval Research U.S. Office of Naval Research grant N001418WX01204 U.S. Office of Naval Research grant N001417WX01098 U.S. Office of Naval Research grant N001415WX01451 |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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