Guiding vector fields in Paparazzi autopilot

Hector Garcia de Marina (1) , Murat Bronz (2) , Gautier Hattenberger (2)

1 UCM - Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid [Madrid]
2 ENAC - Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile

This article is a technical report on the two different guidance systems based on vector fields that can be found in Paparazzi, a free sw/hw autopilot. Guiding vector fields allow autonomous vehicles to track paths described by the user mathematically. In particular, we allow two descriptions of the path with an implicit or a parametric function. Each description is associated with its corresponding guiding vector field algorithm. The implementations of the two algorithms are light enough to be run in a modern microcontroller. We will cover the basic theory on how they work, how a user can implement its own paths in Paparazzi, how to exploit them to coordinate multiple vehicles, and we finish with some experimental results. Although the presented implementation is focused on fixed-wing aircraft, the guidance is also applicable to other kinds of aerial vehicles such as rotorcraft.

Domaines: Systèmes embarqués; Robotique [cs.RO]; Automatique / Robotique

Hector Garcia de Marina, Murat Bronz, Gautier Hattenberger. Guiding vector fields in Paparazzi autopilot. 12th international micro air vehicle conference (IMAV2021), Nov 2021, Puebla, Mexico. pp.63-67. ⟨hal-03439645⟩