Abstract
The use of UAVs on ships greatly increases the capability of many surface vessels through a wide variety of missions such as border security, maritime research and rescue, surveillance, and autonomous deliveries. On Navy ships, these missions can include reconnaissance, electronic warfare, land strike, maritime strike, and Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD). In particular, fixed wing UAVs are preferred over their Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) counterparts due to their increased range, endurance, payload, and speed. In this manuscript, a method for autonomous ship-borne recovery of a UAV using a broadside arresting wire is proposed. The system is designed for small vessels (such as patrol boats and research vessels), is completely self-contained and should limit signal propagation for stealth characteristics in a Defense environment. An Infrared (IR) based system will be used to determine the UAV’s position relative to the arresting wire, with outputs such as distance, relative heading, and orientation using a system like Euler angles. This positional data will then be fed into a control software which translates it into flight controls for the UAV to move onto an ideal landing path. The UAV is assumed to have an IR camera mounted on a gimbal with a high field of view. This paper presents the results of conceptual design, MATLAB development, simulation environment and system performance.
Published Version
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