Autonomous Aerial Recovery of Micro Air Vehicles

The objective of this project is to develop a strategy to recover micro air vehicles into a flying aircraft. Our solution combines three key technologies that have received significant research attention in recent years, namely towed cable systems, cooperative control, and vision-based terminal guidance. We propose to demonstrate the feasibility of using a flying-aircraft mothership pulling an actuated drogue using light-weight, high-strength cable to recover MAVs. When the mothership enters a constant-angular-rate orbit, the drogue drops into an orbit with the same angular rate but a much smaller radius, and therefore a significantly lower airspeed. The drogue will be actuated and have an on-board autopilot to ensure that it enters a stable, well-defined, orbit. The drogue will have a mechanism to capture the MAV upon rendezvous. Cooperative control techniques will be used to bring the MAV to within capture range of the drogue. Vision-based guidance algorithms will be used during the terminal phase of the flight to maximize the probability of capture. The Phase II effort will consist analysis, simulation, design, and flight test experimentation with the goal of fully validating the approach in preparation for further Phase III development and commercialization. BENEFIT: MAVs have proven to be extremely useful for reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) applications. This research supports the implementation of air-launched, recoverable, RSTA MAVs. These MAVs are intended to be launched and recovered from a manned aircraft, such as an AC-130 Spectre at a high standoff altitude. The MAVs would descend, then track and illuminate ground targets for the gunship, perform battle damage assessment, and finally be recovered to the mothership. This project will develop aerial recovery techniques for MAVs that enable the asset to be reused and prevent it from falling into enemy hands.