关键词: 空中加油, 固定翼无人机, 集群无人机, 路径规划, 无人争锋

Abstract: Autonomous aerial refueling technology is of great significance for improving the endurance of UAVs, expanding the combat radius, increasing the weight of the payload, and enhancing strategic deployment et al. It is an essential technology for future intelligent clustering UAV systems. In this paper, we studied the related aerial simulation docking technologies and strategies of the fixed-wing clustering UAVs for the Simulation Docking Race of UAV Challenge Competition. First, we designed the aerial simulation Docking pipeline of the clustering UAVs to deal with their fast speed, high formation density. The shortest time pursuit scheme based on Dubins path was also designed, and the nonlinear guidance law was used for route tracking. Second, we designed a set of weak classifiers to classify the target based on the prior information of the simulation drogue and accelerated the detection process by cascading these classifiers. Third, for the precise docking stage, we designed a strategy for precise docking along the course angle and computed the visual guidance parameters by integrating the attitudes prior of UAV and the size of the simulation drogue. Moreover, we designed a corresponding fixed-wing clustering UAVs system and participated the 2021 Simulation Docking Race of UAV Challenge Competition in a formation of 4 UAVs. Results demonstrated the feasibility and reliability of the pro-posed fixed-wing clustering UAVs system and simulation docking technologies.

Key words: aerial refueling, fixed-wing UAV, clustering UAVs, path planning, UAV Challenge Competition