Adaptive path-following control for parafoil dynamic systems with wind disturbance and rate constraint

This paper investigates a difficult problem of path-following control for parafoil dynamic systems in time-varying wind disturbance. A common representation of a parafoil dynamic system for following straight-line and orbit paths is introduced with the time-varying wind disturbance and modeling uncertainties simultaneously considered. Utilizing the barrier Lyapunov function and backstepping method, an adaptive path-following controller is then developed considering the yaw rate constraint. The closed-loop path-following control system is proved to be asymptotically stable. The key feature of the controller is that it not only ensures the superior capability to attenuate disturbances caused by the time-varying wind and the modeling uncertainties, but also avoids the yaw rate of the parafoil system violating the practical constraint. Experiment tests illustrate the parafoil performance obtained using the proposed path-following controller.