Planning and Tracking of Dynamic Soaring Using Nonlinear Model Predictive Control

Dynamic soaring is a promising technology that can utilize the wind energy from wind shear layers. In the present study, a planning and tracking framework of dynamic soaring is proposed using nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). For the planning strategy, a three degrees of freedom point-mass model is established with the air relative axes, and the planning objective contains a energy related term and a thrust penalty term. For the tracking strategy, a six degrees of freedom model is established with the body-fixed axes, and the tracking objective is defined as the distances of the airspeed and the attitude angles between the planning strategy and the tracking strategy. Compared with the traditional control methods, the NMPC can give a better strategy with more energy harvesting and less energy consumption.