Autonomous Soaring Simulation and Glider System Development

One major limitation of small battery-powered aerial vehicles is short endurance due to the limitations of battery technology. In its constant motion, the atmosphere contains the energy needed for soaring birds, paragliders, and sailplane pilots to stay aloft during many weather conditions. Over the last 20 years, several researchers have developed small unmanned autonomous thermal soaring gliders designed to exploit rising air in the atmosphere to improve aircraft endurance. In this paper, a survey of autonomous soaring systems is provided. Additionally, a simulation architecture that allows for safe high-fidelity testing is described, a control scheme is proposed along with results from the simulation, a hardware solution is detailed, and several flight tests of the system are presented. Initial testing in simulation shows successful mission behavior such as autonomous takeoff, climb-out, loitering, and waypoint flying. Preliminary simulations show successful thermal soaring behavior. Initial flight test results demonstrate basic autonomous capabilities and indicate system readiness for future testing.