Online Four-Dimensional Flight Trajectory Search and its Flight Testing

Abstract

Online flight trajectory optimization algorithms are developed in order to guide and control aircraft for emergency landing. Further, the applicability of generated flight trajectories to real flights is evaluated using a flight simulator and an experimental aircraft. By combining the real-time A* path search algorithm with the R-TABU optimization method and an inverse dynamic method, a near-optimal four-dimensional flight trajectory is computed in real time. The proposed method is applied to design a flight trajectory for emergency landing. The generated flight trajectory is shown to pilots as a tunnel-in-the-sky image in order to track the trajectory by manual operation. Both the simulation and flight experiments refine the algorithms and demonstrate the applicability of the proposed system.