Extensions to the Dubins Airplane Method - Flight Performance Constraints in Uniform Wind

Abstract

This paper extends the Dubins Airplane Method to generate trajectories for fixed-wing aircraft that remain within flight performance limits in the presence of uniform wind. Within the field of runtime-efficient trajectory generation for fixed-wing aircraft, the Dubins Airplane Method represents a well-received and widely adopted compromise between algorithmic complexity, runtime efficiency, and solution quality. However, its simplistic kinematic model restricts its ability to generate safe and feasible trajectories, especially in the presence of wind. As a mathematical foundation to overcome these limitations, a set of closed-form equations are derived that relate flight performance constraints to kinematic constraints. Building upon existing methods that use trochoids for planning of 2D trajectories in uniform wind, this paper presents a set of iterative algorithms for planning versatile 3D trajectories composed of trochoidal or circular turns and straight flight segments, with constant vertical speed, constant thrust or smooth longitudinal transitions. The presented methods comprise a flexible and modular framework for runtime-efficient generation of performance-aware trajectories based on parametric curves without the need for numerical trajectory representations.