Aircraft trajectory management and control with spatial reference

Abstract : The purpose of this communication is to investigate the interest of using a spatial reference for performing first aircraft trajectory generation and then trajectory tracking while overfly or arrival time constraints are imposed. The adoption of a space reference leads us to rewrite the aircraft flight dynamics. Then an aircraft trajectory optimization problem, including time constraints, is formulated and discussed. Then a new nonlinear control structure for trajectory tracking based on spatial reference is developed and simulation results are displayed.