A homogenization-planning-tracking method to solve cooperative autonomous motion control for heterogeneous carrier dispatch systems

Taxiing aircraft and towed aircraft with drawbar are two typical dispatch modes on the flight deck of aircraft carriers. In this paper, a novel hierarchical solution strategy, named as the Homogenization-Planning-Tracking (HPT) method, to solve cooperative autonomous motion control for heterogeneous carrier dispatch systems is developed. In the homogenization layer, any towed aircraft system involved in the sortie task is abstracted into a virtual taxiing aircraft. This layer transforms the heterogeneous systems into a homogeneous configuration. Then in the planning layer, a centralized optimal control problem is formulated for the homogeneous system. Compared with conducting the path planning directly with the original heterogeneous system, the homogenization layer contributes to reduce the dimension and nonlinearity of the formulated optimal control problem in the planning layer and consequently improves the robustness and efficiency of the solution process. Finally, in the tracking layer, a receding horizon controller is developed to track the reference trajectory obtained in the planning layer. To improve the tracking performance, multi-objective optimization techniques are implemented offline in advance to determine optimal weight parameters used in the tracking layer. Simulations demonstrate that smooth and collision-free cooperative trajectory can be generated efficiently in the planning phase. And robust trajectory tracking can be realized in the presence of external disturbances in the tracking phase. The developed HPT method provides a promising solution to the autonomous deck dispatch for unmanned carrier aircraft in the future.