Behavior-Based Onboard Mission Management for an Unmanned Fixed-Wing Aircraft

Abstract

“This paper presents a behavior-based onboard mission management system for the Prometheus unmanned fixed-wing aircraft. The mission manager allows for interaction with the unmanned aircraft at various levels of abstraction ranging from behavior commands to remote controlled flight. The use of behaviors helps to assure a modular mission management concept. As the aircraft cannot hover, transitions between subsequent behaviors are computed onboard by path planning modules with respect to the constraints of the fixed-wing aircraft. The presented mission manager is derived from previous work considering autonomous helicopters. The concept of composite behaviors was also used in the presented system in order to extend the flexibility of the approach. The architecture of the mission manager is discussed in detail. Additionally, a Monte Carlo simulation illustrates the short computation time of the transition path planning. The execution of a mission plan is demonstrated using a software-in-the-loop simulation.”