Precise Rendezvous-Control of heterogeneous Aircraft and Ground Vehicle Systems

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Dirk Abel; Professor Dr.-Ing. Dieter Moormann
• Subject Area: Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics ; Traffic and Transport Systems, Intelligent and Automated Traffic
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391925917

The project 'Precise Rendezvous of Heterogeneous Aircraft and Ground Systems' addresses the automated landing of an unmanned aircraft on a moving ground vehicle. In order to omit a conventional landing gear, e. g. to reduce weight, the capability to land the aircraft on a ground based vehicle shall be provided. This problem can be characterized as a synchronization process that merges the individual trajectories of the two systems into one common target trajectory.On the one hand, the inherent control problems and flight mechanical challenges that arise by the heterogenic dynamics of aircraft and ground vehicle need to be solved. On the other hand, significant external influences like wind or sensor and actuator failures need to be specifically addressed. To ensure the availability of such an automated landing even during windy conditions, a feed forward control based on wind and gust prediction will be realized. Additionally efficient handling of component failures will be investigated. Here the fact will be utilized that the complete system consisting of aircraft and ground vehicle is overdetermined with respect to the degrees-of-freedom required for landing. By means of reconfiguration the functionality of the complete system shall be maintained even during failure of one of the actuators. Overall, these tasks require significant research in the field of control engineering and flight mechanics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants