Title:
Efficient and robust aircraft landing trajectory optimization

dc.contributor.advisor Tsiotras, Panagiotis
dc.contributor.author Zhao, Yiming en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Feron, Eric
dc.contributor.committeeMember Johnson, Eric N.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Clarke, John-Paul
dc.contributor.committeeMember Egerstedt, Magnus
dc.contributor.committeeMember Russell, Ryan P.
dc.contributor.department Aerospace Engineering en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2012-06-06T16:42:55Z
dc.date.available 2012-06-06T16:42:55Z
dc.date.issued 2012-01-18 en_US
dc.description.abstract This thesis addresses the challenges in the efficient and robust generation and optimization of three-dimensional landing trajectories for fixed-wing aircraft subject to prescribed boundary conditions and constraints on maneuverability and collision avoidance. In particular, this thesis focuses on the airliner emergency landing scenario and the minimization of landing time. The main contribution of the thesis is two-fold. First, it provides a hierarchical scheme for integrating the complementary strength of a variety of methods in path planning and trajectory optimization for the improvement in efficiency and robustness of the overall landing trajectory optimization algorithm. The second contribution is the development of new techniques and results in mesh refinement for numerical optimal control, optimal path tracking, and smooth path generation, which are all integrated in a hierarchical scheme and applied to the landing trajectory optimization problem. A density function based grid generation method is developed for the mesh refinement process during numerical optimal control. A numerical algorithm is developed based on this technique for solving general optimal control problems, and is used for optimizing aircraft landing trajectories. A path smoothing technique is proposed for recovering feasibility of the path and improving the tracking performance by modifying the path geometry. The optimal aircraft path tracking problem is studied and analytical results are presented for both the minimum-time, and minimum-energy tracking with fixed time of arrival. The path smoothing and optimal path tracking methods work together with the geometric path planner to provide a set of feasible initial guess to the numerical optimal control algorithm. The trajectory optimization algorithm in this thesis was tested by simulation experiments using flight data from two previous airliner accidents under emergency landing scenarios.The real-time application of the landing trajectory optimization algorithm as part of the aircraft on-board automation avionics system has the potential to provide effective guidelines to the pilots for improving the fuel consumption during normal landing process, and help enhancing flight safety under emergency landing scenarios. The proposed algorithms can also help design optimal take-off and landing trajectories and procedures for airports. en_US
dc.description.degree PhD en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/43586
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Quadratic programming en_US
dc.subject Optimal control en_US
dc.subject Trajectory optimization en_US
dc.subject Aircraft landing en_US
dc.subject Minimum time en_US
dc.subject Minimum fuel en_US
dc.subject Nonlinear programming en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Trajectory optimization Mathematical models
dc.subject.lcsh Landing aids (Aeronautics)
dc.subject.lcsh Airplanes Landing
dc.title Efficient and robust aircraft landing trajectory optimization en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Tsiotras, Panagiotis
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
local.relation.ispartofseries Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Aerospace Engineering
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