The autonomous control of an aircraft under the flare and touch-down maneuvers is an interesting problem of both theoretical and practical nature. In this paper, a concept of the autonomous landing system (ALS) for unmanned air vehicles (UAV) is presented. The flight control system is addressed to the low-cost, civilian, medium-size UAV with relatively low approach speed and typical nose-wheel landing gear.
Final approach is executed automatically using differential GPS guidance system. When the flight control system selects the LANDING option at chosen altitude (based on GPS and pressure altitude), a change in aircraft’s attitude is executed. New attitude ensures safe flare and touchdown of the unmanned aircraft.
Flight control system is based on the model-following design technique. Two kinds of flight control systems are taken into consideration. The first solution is based on the optimal full-state feedback controller, the second one is the simplified controller, using the easy observed states for feedback loop only. The project of the autonomous landing system is addressed to the perspective UAV, however the prototype solution is testing on the general aviation aircraft board. The project calculation of the flight control system for PZL-110 “Koliber” aircraft, computer simulations and preliminary flight testing results will be presented.