Towards Robust Optimization-Based Autonomous Dynamic Soaring With a Fixed-Wing UAV

Marvin Harms

doi:10.1109/LRA.2026.3685929

Towards Robust Optimization-Based Autonomous Dynamic Soaring With a Fixed-Wing UAV

2026-04-20

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Friedrich M. Rockenbauer

DOI：10.1109/LRA.2026.3685929

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Dynamic soaring is a flying technique to exploit the energy available in wind shear layers, enabling potentially unlimited flight without the need for internal energy sources. We propose a framework for autonomous dynamic soaring with a fixed-wing uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV). The framework makes use of an explicit representation of the wind field and a classical approach for guidance and control of the UAV. Robustness to wind field estimation error is achieved by constructing point-wise robust reference paths for dynamic soaring and the development of a robust path following controller for the fixed-wing UAV. Wind estimation and path tracking performance are validated with real flight tests to demonstrate robust path-following in real wind conditions. In simulation, we demonstrate robust dynamic soaring flight subject to varied wind conditions, estimation errors and disturbances. Together, our results strongly indicate the ability of the proposed framework to achieve autonomous dynamic soaring flight in wind shear.

Keywords:

Autonomous aerial vehicles

field robotics

path planning

Towards Robust Optimization-Based Autonomous Dynamic Soaring With a Fixed-Wing UAV

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