Guidance and Control System for an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle as a Wingman

Abstract

This study focuses on designing and testing a formation guidance system for a UCAV as a wingman to an F-16 fighter jet. A critical assessment of the UCAV autopilot revealed areas for improvement, which were addressed to refine the stable foundation of the autopilot for implementing the guidance system. This system uses PID controllers to minimise the along-track, cross-track, and vertical-track errors during standard manoeuvres. The system performed exceptionally well in the vertical (z) direction but showed robustness challenges in the along-track (x) and cross-track (y) directions under wind disturbances. A notable outcome was the identification of a novel mathematical relationship between the along-track offset command and its gains, offering a pathway for advanced formation systems. These findings pave the way for future enhancements in diverse formation operations.

Keywords

Wingman operation / Formation flying / Guidance / PID control

Acknowledgment

Thanks is extended to the company, Halcon, for their funding assistance.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, F.A.A. and J.F.W.; Methodology, F.A.A.; Software, F.A.A.; Validation, F.A.A.; Formal Analysis, F.A.A.; Investigation, F.A.A.; Resources, J.F.W.; Data Curation, J.F.W.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, F.A.A. and J.F.W.; Writing—Review & Editing, F.A.A. and J.F.W.; Visualization, F.A.A. and J.F.W.; Supervision, J.F.W.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

The software and data used for this paper are available from the second author, J.F.W, on request.

Funding

This research received no direct external funding.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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