Fusion of Hard and Soft Control for Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles

Authors:	Hoover Randy C., Idaho State University, United States Schoen Marco P., Idaho State University, United States Subbaram Naidu D., Idaho State University, United States
Topic:	7.5 Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles
Session:	Intelligent Vehicle Control
Keywords:	Autonomous vehicles, Fuzzy control, Intelligent control, Adaptive control

Abstract

This paper develops a new approach by integrating hard and soft control strategies for Guidance, Navigation, and Control of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The desired features from both soft and hard control are incorporated in the development of a navigation controller and UAV autopilot. The navigation controller is responsible for the generation of flyable trajectories based on desired GPS waypoint destinations. The UAV autopilot is responsible for steering the UAV along these desired trajectories while maintaining stable control.