Sensitivity Analysis of an Automated Formation Flight Based on GPS and Transmission Data Specifications

Abstract

An automated formation flight scenario with one leader and one follower aircraft is considered. In this context, a simulation-based sensitivity analysis is used to investigate how the position keeping performance of the automated formation flight is affected by the specifications of the leader aircraft's flight data that the follower aircraft gathers. The leader aircraft flight data specifications are determined by three parameters: Noise present in the leader flight data, time delay of the data by the time it is acquired by the follower aircraft, and the period at which the follower aircraft gathers the leader flight data. These three parameters are the independent variables of the sensitivity analysis and are varied among consecutive simulations. The sensitivity of the formation flight is assessed by the maximum absolute relative position error during 60 seconds of stable formation flight on a straight and level path. For the sensitivity analysis an example data gathering configuration is used, in which the GPS-based, time-stamped position and velocity measurements of the leader aircraft are sent to the follower through a wireless data link.