Autonomous vertical landing on an oscillating platform: an internal-model based approach

In this paper we address the design of an autopilot for the autonomous land ing of a vertical take off and landing vehicle on a ship whose deck oscilla tes in the vertical direction due to high sea states. The deck motion is mo deled as the superposition of a fixed number of sinusoidal functions of tim e, of unknown frequency, amplitude and phase. We design an internal-model-b ased error-feedback dynamic regulator that is robust with respect to uncert ainties on the mechanical parameters that characterize the model and secure s global convergence. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.