UAV guidance with respect of arrival specifications

This paper describes a method to control the arrival time, xy plane speed, and orientation of an unmanned aerial vehicles to specified static targets. To reach the mission objectives, a virtual target is created and associated to each real target. Each virtual target moves along a straight line at a constant speed corresponding to the one at which the UAV must reach the real target. The starting point of the virtual target is such that it will be at the real target position at the desired arrival time. The orientation of the line followed by the virtual target is the one that the UAV must reach the real target. Therefore, adequately tracking the virtual targets allows UAVs to respect the mission objectives. A model predictive control scheme is used as guidance algorithm for each UAV. The control criterion is the weighted sum of the predicted distance between the virtual target and the UAV, and the control effort.