A novel trajectory planning strategy for aircraft emergency landing using Gauss pseudospectral method

To improve the survivability during an emergency situation, an algorithm for aircraft forced landing trajectory planning is proposed. The method integrates damaged aircraft modelling and trajectory planning into an optimal control framework. In order to deal with the complex aircraft flight dynamics, a solving strategy based on Gauss pseudospetral method (GPM) is presented. A 3-DOF nonlinear mass-point model taking into account the wind is developed to approximate the aircraft flight dynamics after loss of thrust. The solution minimizes the forced landing duration, with respect to the constraints that translate the changed dynamics, flight envelope limitation and operational safety requirements. The GPM is used to convert the trajectory planning problem to a nonlinear programming problem (NLP), which is solved by sequential quadratic programming algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can generate the minimum-time forced landing trajectory in event of engine-out with high efficiency and precision.