Perch landing assisted by thruster (PLAT): Concept and trajectory optimization

Abstract

A concept of the perch landing assisted by thruster (PLAT) for a fixed wind aircraft is proposed in this paper. The proposed concept is applicable to relatively large unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), hence can overcome the limitation of existing perch landing technologies. A planar rigid body motion of an aircraft with aerodynamic and thruster forces and moments is modeled. An optimal control problem to minimize the fuel consumption by determining the histories of thruster and elevator deflection angle with specified terminal landing condition is formulated and solved. A parametric study for various initial conditions and thruster parameters is conducted to demonstrate the practicability of the proposed concept.