US 12,291,358 B2
Integrated guidance and feedback control for autonomous vehicle
Amit K. Sanyal, Manlius, NY (US); and Sasi Prabhakaran Viswanathan, Syracuse, NY (US)
Assigned to SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, Syracuse, NY (US)
Appl. No. 16/646,682
Filed by Amit K. Sanyal, Manlius, NY (US); and Sasi Prabhakaran Viswanathan, Syracuse, NY (US)
PCT Filed Sep. 15, 2017, PCT No. PCT/US2017/051754
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 12, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/055025, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 21, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2020/0277053 A1, Sep. 3, 2020
Int. Cl. B64U 10/00 (2023.01); B64U 10/14 (2023.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01)
CPC B64U 10/14 (2023.01) [G05D 1/0858 (2013.01); B64U 2201/10 (2023.01)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A control system for an underactuated vehicle having a plurality of thrusters that provide a body-fixed thrust direction, comprising:
a controller operably interconnected to the plurality of thrusters for selectively controlling each of the plurality of thrusters;
wherein the controller is programmed to receive a starting position, at least one waypoint, and a final destination,
to determine a smooth position trajectory that is continuous and at least twice differentiable for describing a flight path for the vehicle from the starting position through the at least one waypoint to the final designation,
to determine a thrust vector that is continuous and differentiable and that converges to the smooth position trajectory in an asymptotically stable manner,
to generate a unit vector that is continuous and differentiable and that is transverse to the thrust vector,
to generate a smooth attitude trajectory from the thrust vector and the unit vector that is transverse to the thrust vector, and
to generate a control torque that is continuous and tracks the smooth attitude trajectory and converges in finite time to the smooth attitude trajectory faster than the thrust vector converges to the position trajectory.