A hybrid feedback control strategy for autonomous waypoint transitioning and loitering of unmanned aerial vehicles

We consider the problem of autonomously controlling a fixed-wing aerial vehicle to visit a neighborhood of a pre-defined waypoint, and when nearby it, loiter around it. To solve this problem, we propose a hybrid feedback control strategy that unites two state-feedback controllers: a transit controller capable of steering or transitioning the vehicle to nearby the waypoint and a loiter controller capable of steering the vehicle about a loitering radius. The aerial vehicle is modeled on a level flight plane with system performance characterized in terms of the aerodynamic, propulsion, and mass properties. Thrust and bank angle are the control inputs. Asymptotic stability properties of the individual control algorithms, which are designed using backstepping, as well as of the closed-loop system, which includes a hybrid algorithm uniting the two controllers, are established. In particular, for this application of hybrid feedback control, Lyapunov functions and hybrid systems theory are employed to establish stability properties of the set of points defining loitering. The analytical results are confirmed numerically by simulations.