A Novel BD-2 RTK/Binocular Vision Navigation Solution for Automated Aerial Refueling

Automated Aerial Refueling (AAR) is a significant approach to improve sail distance, endurance and load of aircrafts, thus there is a wide range of needs in the military and civilian fields. The article presents a novel navigation solution for “Probe-and-drogue” air-refueling styles. Entire navigation process is divided into three steps. Firstly, tanker and receiver utilize BD-2 (Beidou-2 Navigation Satellite System) Real-Time Kinematics (RTK) to get closer at long-distance. Secondly, they utilize RTK/Binocular Vision Integrated Navigation to keep step with each other at mid-distance. Finally, at short-distance the Binocular Vision is used to keep tracking precisely. The RTK here is Dynamic to Dynamic Real time Differential Positioning. At last, this paper discusses the accuracy of the proposed AAR navigation solution, and simulation results are given.