Dynamics and control of maneuverable towed flight vehicles

Cochran, John E.; Innocenti, Mario; No, T. S.; Thukral, A.

doi:10.2514/3.20975

Cited by 54 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In the literature, the dynamics of towed-body systems were modeled by assuming that the cable is flexible and non-elastic [2,19,23,26,49,50]. In previous flight tests, a fishing line was utilized as the cable in which considerable stretch was observed [4].…”

Section: Mathematical Model Of the Cable-drogue Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cochran et al [23] experimentally validated the theoretical model in a wind tunnel by comparing the lateral motions of the towed body in both experimental and simulation results. Short cables (1.5 − 3 m) and different wind speed conditions were used.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In previous studies of towed cable systems, experimental results were used to validate the mathematical model in the simulation [4,[22][23][24][25][26]. Cochran et al [23] experimentally validated the theoretical model in a wind tunnel by comparing the lateral motions of the towed body in both experimental and simulation results.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The experiments presented in the literature were conducted either using short cables, less than 10 m [22,23], or long cables, more than 1000 m [24][25][26], and the previous aerial towed cable systems, typically being towed by manned aircraft, made the experiments very expensive and difficult to execute and repeat. In previous related work [4] on aerial recovery, an unmanned towing vehicle and 100 m long cable were used to collect data for model validation.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Optimal Trajectory Generation Using Model Predictive Control for Aerially Towed Cable Systems

Sun

Hedengren

Beard

2014

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

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This paper studies trajectory generation for a mothership that tows a drogue using a flexible cable. The contributions of this paper include model validation for the towed cable system described by a lumped mass extensible cable using flight data, and optimal trajectory generation for the towed cable system with tension constraints using model predictive control. The optimization problem is formulated using a combination of the squared-error and L 1 -norm objective functions. Different desired circular trajectories of the towed body are used to calculate optimal trajectories for the towing vehicle subject to performance limits and wind disturbances. Trajectory generation for transitions from straight and level flight into an orbit is also presented. The computational efficiency is demonstrated, which is essential for potential real-time applications. This paper gives a framework for specifying an arbitrary flight path for the towed body by optimizing the action of the towing vehicle subject to constraints.

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Section: Mathematical Model Of the Cable-drogue Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Optimal Trajectory Generation Using Model Predictive Control for Aerially Towed Cable Systems

Sun

Hedengren

Beard

2014

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

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“…Hence one would expect research concerning the control of aerial tethered systems to be well established, yet this is not true and more research is needed for the aforementioned applications to fully materialize. Whilst some research has centred on the development of payload-based control laws to stabilize an airborne payload (Henderson, et al 1999;Bourmistrov, et al 1995;Cochran, et al 1992), the development of cable-based control laws for more practical purposes (i.e. payload transportation) is limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cable Assisted Rendezvous for Aircraft With Surface Locations

Sgarioto

Trivailo

2005

IFAC Proceedings Volumes

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By systematically altering the in-plane flight path and velocity of an aircraft and the rate at which the cable is deployed, the tip of a cable being towed behind an aircraft is shown to rendezvous with a ground-based surface location in minimum time, with minimum control effort required. This is achieved through optimal control, formulated as a nonlinear programming problem using the Legendre-pseudospectral method. This method is fast, efficient and accurate. Results depicting a typical payload transportation operation are presented and discussed, along with directions for future research. The robustness of the method to disturbances is also explored.

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