NEAR-FIELD HOMING AND GUIDANCE PLANNING FOR AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

Abstract

Advances in planning and controls algorithms for Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs) have led to a substantial increase in a wide variety of applications. An important task for UAVs is au-tomated high-precision homing-and-docking. This requires the UAV to autonomously estimate its relative bearing to the home docking station and plan its optimal approach accordingly. This paper presents the design of homing and navigation system for UAVs that can operate in near-field scenarios. The system incorporates a dual-transmitter/receiver design and through a modified angle of arrival and motion estimation routine, the UAV can determine its relative bearing to the homing station while simultaneously planning the optimal approach. The approach planning algorithm will be described, along with theoretical analysis and simulated results documenting its performance in comparison to other techniques.