GPS denied source seeking for underactuated autonomous vehicles in 3D

Extremum seeking has been successfully applied to source seeking for autonomous vehicles operating in two dimensions. In this paper we extend these results to vehicles operating in three dimensions. The extension is interesting for several reasons. First, there is the choice of vehicle models to consider, and second there is the question of what type of vehicle movement can be actuated. We present two control schemes which address these questions. The first scheme focuses on vehicles with a constant forward velocity and the ability to actuate pitch and yaw velocities. The second scheme explores vehicles which operate with a constant forward velocity and a constant pitch velocity and which are capable of actuating only the roll velocity. We present the vehicle models, details of the control schemes, and simulation results.