Fixed-wing UAV guidance law for surface-target tracking and overflight

This study presents a new guidance algorithm for a fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) used for surveillance tracking purposes. In particular, the algorithm ensures continual overflying of the target whether it is fixed or in motion. Attention was paid to the definition of the guidance specifications in order to derive a suitable guidance algorithm capable of fulfilling the requirements under tight constraints including the constancy of airspeed and bounded lateral accelerations. An assessment of the performance of the presented algorithm is given by means of hardware-in-the-loop tests.