Flight Test Results for Circular Path Following by Model Predictive Control

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes a novel lateral guidance law of an unmanned aerial vehicle using model predictive control and shows its flight test results. The guidance law is accompanied with an extended Kalman filter which estimates steady wind velocities in order to follow a pre-specified reference path defined in the ground-fixed coordinate system. A small scale research vehicle, developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, is used for flight tests and the results show the proposed system's high guidance performance.