Energy-Centric Control for Autonomous Mobile Nodes to Enhance Functional Stability under Turbulent
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/intechsys.2026.03.047Keywords:
autonomous mobile nodes, autonomous takeoff and landing (ATOL), total energy control system (TECS), energy state, atmospheric turbulence, functional stability, aircraft survivabilityAbstract
This paper proposes a conceptual approach to the autonomous takeoff and landing control of autonomous mobile nodes (AMNs) based on the Total Energy Control System (TECS) methodology. The study aims to enhance the operational efficiency and survivability of unmanned aviation by utilizing the aircraft's energy state as a fundamental control invariant. The proposed approach overcomes the limitations of traditional systems, specifically their high sensitivity to stochastic disturbances and degraded stabilization accuracy under atmospheric turbulence. The control algorithm is optimized based on two criteria: minimizing the deviation of the AMN's total energy from the reference flight trajectory and minimizing the imbalance between kinetic and potential energies to stabilize the rate of descent (or climb). Simulation results demonstrate that the implementation of this method provides robust resilience to external dynamic disturbances, mitigates the human factor, and enables mission execution under adverse weather conditions without rigid dependence on ground-based airfield infrastructure. Future research will focus on scaling the approach to multi-agent systems, integrating adaptation methods based on random projections, and field testing on fixed-wing platforms.
References
Volkov O., Komar M., Volosheniuk D. Devising an image processing method for transport infrastructure monitoring systems. Eastern-European Journal of Enterprise Technologies, 2021, Vol. 4 (2(112)), 18–25. https://doi.org/10.15587/1729-4061.2021.239084
Yang P. A Review of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Control Technology: Methods, Applications and Development Trends. Applied and Computational Engineering, 2025, Vol. 218, 171–182. https://doi.org/10.54254/2755-2721/2026.TJ31062
Gu H., LyuX., Li Z., Shen Sh., Zhang F. Development and experimental verification of a hybrid vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (AMN). International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), IEEE, 2017, 160–169. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2017.7991420
De Oca A.M., Flores G. Unified controller for take-off and landing for a fixed-wing aircraft. International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), Athens, Greece, 2020, 473–479. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS48674.2020.9213878
Ładyżyńska-Kozdraś E., Sibilska-Mroziewicz A., Sławomir C., Krzysztof F., Sibilski K., Wróblewski W. Take-off and landing magnetic system for AMN carriers. Journal of Marine Engineering & Technology, 2017, Vol. 16 (4), 298–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/20464177.2017.1369720
Liu Y., Wang Y., Li H., Ai J. Runway-Free Recovery Methods for Fixed-Wing AMNs: A Comprehensive Review. Drones, 2024, Vol. 8 (9), Article 463. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8090463
Xiong H., Li T., Li H., Yu C. A Preliminary Research on Performance Prediction Model of Catapult Launched Take-Off for a Large Wingspan Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Complex Systems Design & Management, Springer, Cham, 2021, 467–467. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73539-5_37
Zou Y., Meng Z. Coordinated trajectory tracking of multiple vertical take-off and landing AMNs. Automatica, 2019, Vol. 99, 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2018.10.011
Klochan A.E., Al-Ammouri A., Abdulsalam H.I.S. Advanced AMN landing system based on polarimetrie technologies. International Conference Actual Problems of Autonomous mobile nodes Developments (APAMND), IEEE, 2017, 147–150. https://doi.org/10.1109/APAMND.2017.8308796
Muskardin T., Balmer G., Persson L. et al.. A novel landing system to increase payload capacity and operational availability of high altitude long endurance AMNs. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 2017, Vol. 88 (2), 597–618. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-017-0475-z
Kügler M.E., Heller M., Holzapfel F. Automatic take-off and landing on the maiden flight of a novel fixed-wing AMN. Flight Testing Conference, 2018, Article 4275. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-4275
Steinleitner A., Frenzel V., Pfeifle O., Denzel J., Fichter W. Automatic Take-Off and Landing of Tailwheel Aircraft with Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion. AIAA SCITECH Forum, 2022, Article 1228. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-1228
El Mobaraky A., Kouiss Kh., Chebak A. Total energy control system-based interval type-3 fuzzy logic controller for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle longitudinal flight dynamics, Aerospace Science and Technology, 2025, Vol. 162, 1270–9638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2025.110253
Fossen T.I. Handbook of Marine Craft Hydrodynamics and Motion Control. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Chichester, UK, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119994138
Weiser Ch., Gertjan L., Ossmann D. Flight Testing Total Energy Control Autopilot Functionalities for High Altitude Aircraft. AIAA SCITECH Forum, 2024, Article 2204. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-2204
Jimenez P., Lichota P., Agudelo D., Rogowski K. Experimental Validation of Total Energy Control System for AMNs. Energies, 2020, Vol. 13 (1), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13010014
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Copyright Holder is the publisher of the Paper (The Institute of Information Technologies and Systems of the NAS of Ukraine), and/or the publisher of the Paper (PH "Akademperiodika" of the NAS of Ukraine), to that the The Institute of Information Technologies and Systems of the NAS of Ukraine on the basis of a sublicense publishing agreement granted the right to publish the work and the right to indicate the publisher after the copyright sign.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The paper is an Open Access under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.
