STRAIGHT-LINE PATH FOLLOWING IN WINDY CONDITIONS

Abstract. A straight-line following controller for a small and light airplane flying in windy conditions is proposed. In a first time, the lateral dynamics of the plane are derived and the error deviation velocity with respect to the desired trajectory is computed. A simple nonlinear control law is developed in order to impose a linear behavior for the airplane position and to track the desired trajectory. Several simulations, taking into account quasi-constant wind disturbances, are performed to analyze the performance of the closed-loop system. Improved results are obtained including the airplane orientation to counter the wind as an input for the flight planning. In order to validate the proposed control scheme an airplane has been developed based on the classic aerodynamic layout. Future work will introduce the experimental results when applying in real-time the proposed control algorithm.