Advances in air to air refuelling

Thomas, Peter; Bhandari, Ujjar; Bullock, Steve; Richardson, Thomas; Bois, Jonathan Luke du

doi:10.1016/j.paerosci.2014.07.001

Cited by 133 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 132 publications

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“…This review will examine the key work on relative navigation, drogue estimation and formation guidance, but, a more in-depth discussion can be found in [21]. Pioneering work at Georgia Tech [12,23] demonstrated the first vision-only formation flight, using line of sight (LOS) measurements to a leader, from a monocular camera.…”

Section: A Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Guidance and Navigation for UAV Airborne Docking

Wilson¹,

Göktoğan²,

Sukkarieh³

2015

Robotics: Science and Systems XI

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Abstract-Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capability is currently limited by the amount of energy that can be stored onboard. Airborne docking, for mid-air refueling, is a viable solution that has been implemented with manned aircraft for decades, but has yet to be achieved with their unmanned counterparts. The prohibitive challenge is the highly accurate and reliable relative positioning performance that is necessary to dock with a small target, in the air, amidst external disturbances. This paper presents a complete solution to airborne docking, which includes vision-aided unscented Kalman filters for leaderrelative navigation and docking appendage motion estimation; and guidance that is suitable for all phases of the mission. The work concludes by demonstrating the proposed algorithms in what is thought to be the first UAV airborne docking.

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Section: A Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the aircraft were manned, they performed the final stage of docking automatically, using a relative GPS/INS system and a separate vision system to observe the drogue. So far, this is the only program to have demonstrated autonomous physical connection using refueling apparatus [21].…”

Section: A Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guidance and Navigation for UAV Airborne Docking

Wilson¹,

Göktoğan²,

Sukkarieh³

2015

Robotics: Science and Systems XI

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“…Aerial refueling can greatly improve the ability of manned aircrafts and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to execute remote and long endurance tasks [1][2][3][4]. Probe-drogue aerial refueling system (PDARS) has been widely concerned by the research institutions of various countries because of its flexibility and economy [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Approach to Mathematical Modeling and Estimation of Probe-Drogue Docking Success Probability for UAV Autonomous Aerial Refueling

Wang

Xingwei

et al. 2017

International Journal of Aerospace Engineering

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One of the keys to the success of aerial refueling for probe-drogue aerial refueling system (PDARS) is the successful docking between the probe and drogue. The study of probe-drogue docking success probability offers an important support to achieving successful docking. During the docking phase of PDARS, based on prior information and reasonable assumptions for the movements of the drogue under atmospheric disturbance, the probe-drogue docking success probability is converted to the probability of the drogue center located in a specific area. A model of the probe-drogue docking success probability is established with and without actuation error, respectively. The curves of the probe-drogue docking success probability with the standard deviation of the drogue central position, the maximum distance from the drogue center position to the equilibrium position, the actuation error, and the standard deviation of the actuation error are obtained through simulations. The study has referential value for the docking maneuver decision of aerial refueling for PDARS.

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“…As an effective method for increasing the endurance and range of aircraft by refueling them in flight [3], UAV autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) has attracted an increasing interest over the last decades from both theoretical and practical aspects covering aircraft control, sensor systems, and their integration [4][5][6][7][8]. Generally, there are two refueling methods [3]: flying boom method and probe-drogue refueling (PDR) [9][10][11]. And the PDR is getting to be a universal refueling equipment due to its low cost and wide operational aspects [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antidisturbance Vibration Suppression of the Aerial Refueling Hose during the Coupling Process

Wang

2017

International Journal of Aerospace Engineering

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In autonomous aerial refueling (AAR), the vibration of the flexible refueling hose caused by the receiver aircraft's excessive closure speed should be suppressed once it appears. This paper proposed an active control strategy based on the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) angular control for the timely and accurate vibration suppression of the flexible refueling hose. A nonsingular fast terminal sliding-mode (NFTSM) control scheme with adaptive extended state observer (AESO) is proposed for PMSM take-up system under multiple disturbances. The states and the "total disturbance" of the PMSM system are firstly reconstituted using the AESO under the uncertainties and measurement noise. Then, a faster sliding variable with tracking error exponential term is proposed together with a special designed reaching law to enhance the global convergence speed and precision of the controller. The proposed control scheme provides a more comprehensive solution to rapidly suppress the flexible refueling hose vibration in AAR. Compared to other methods, the scheme can suppress the flexible hose vibration more fleetly and accurately even when the system is exposed to multiple disturbances and measurement noise. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is competitive in accuracy, global rapidity, and robustness.

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Advances in air to air refuelling

Cited by 133 publications

References 132 publications

Guidance and Navigation for UAV Airborne Docking

Guidance and Navigation for UAV Airborne Docking

An Approach to Mathematical Modeling and Estimation of Probe-Drogue Docking Success Probability for UAV Autonomous Aerial Refueling

Antidisturbance Vibration Suppression of the Aerial Refueling Hose during the Coupling Process

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