Toward vision based landing of a fixed-wing UAV on an unknown runway under some fov constraints

In this article, a vision based landing framework is proposed for fixed-wing UAVs. Being able to automatically land a UAV without on-ground instrumentation or in the case of e.g. GPS loss, is a challenge of strong practical relevance. In this study, the Avion Jaune UAV, was considered to apply such a framework enabling it with vision-only landing capability. The proposed approach considers the synthesis of vision based flight control laws under some field of view (fov) constraints. Such constraints can however destabilize the UAV in the case of a very poor knowledge about the runway. This problem is addressed by using a vision based-observer in combination with an anti-windup strategy. Some simulation results show the effectiveness and potential of the method.

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