Trajectory tracking controller design and simulation of a tethered aircraft

Date

2025-11-11

Author

Onen, Anil Sami
Tekinalp, Ozan

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This study addresses the control problem of an airborne wind energy aircraft, generating power on the ground. The proposed control tracks a pre-defined trajectory in the power generation phase. The reference attitude information is computed by the trajectory tracking controller so that the aircraft carries out a coordinated turn and maintains a proper pitch attitude to generate the necessary lift to pull the winch. A novel quaternion-based nonlinear attitude controller is designed, utilizing the attitude commands generated by the tracking controller. A six degrees of freedom mathematical model of the aircraft together with the winch is modeled. Besides the power generation phase, the rewind phase, triggered when the maximum tether length is achieved is taken into account as well. The success of the developed controller is demonstrated through several nonlinear simulation-based flight tests. The generated power is compared with the theoretical maximum value and other sources from the literature.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/117147

Collections

Department of Aerospace Engineering, Article