Automatic landing and take off at constant slope without terrestrial aids

Franck Ruffier (1, 2) , Julien Serres (1, 3) , Nicolas Franceschini (1, 2)

1 ISM - Institut des Sciences du Mouvement Etienne Jules Marey
2 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
3 AMU - Aix Marseille Université

We have developed an automatic autopilot called OCTAVE (Optic flow based Control sysTem for Aerial VEhicles) that enables a rotorcraft to take off and land automatically at a constant ascent or descent angle without requiring any Terrestrial Aids. In previous studies, we described how a rotorcraft equipped with the OCTAVE visually based AFCS reacts suitably when encountering shallow terrain and wind disturbances. The OCTAVE autopilot involves a feedback loop designed to keep the downward optic flow (i.e., the ratio between groundspeed and ground height) constant by adjusting the rotor thrust. The downward optic flow is measured with an optronic angular velocity sensor that operates in the present version in the near IR but could work with millimetre waves as well. The electronic processing system required is so lightweight (it weighs only a few grams) that it can be mounted onboard Unmanned Air Vehicles and even on Micro-Air Vehicles. On the other hand, the OCTAVE autopilot could also provide guidance and / or warning signals to help pilots keep a constant ascent or descent slope in the absence of any off-board navigation aids.

Mots clés: Biorobotics; Biomimetics; Operations; Takeoff and Landing Manoeuvres; Constant descent angle; AFCS (Automatic Flight Control Systems); UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle); MAV (Micro-Air Vehicle); Vision; Optic Flow (OF)

Domaines: Automatique / Robotique

Franck Ruffier, Julien Serres, Nicolas Franceschini. Automatic landing and take off at constant slope without terrestrial aids. 31th European Rotorcraft Forum (ERF'05), Sep 2005, Florence, Italy. pp.92.1-92.8. ⟨hal-02295758⟩