Control techniques for autonomous launching of ship-based unmanned air vehicles (UAVs)

Autonomous shipboard launching of UAVs in a hostile atmospheric environment would greatly extend the usefulness of these aircraft, Currently a majority of UAVs are remotely launched under limited conditions. This paper presents control and guidance strategies that will allow autonomous launching under a much greater set of atmospheric hazards. Two modern control techniques are compared for use in this case. The main problem when dealing with low speed UAVs is found to be high steady winds causing stall. Several strategies are presented that can allow stall to be avoided and recovered.