Phase-Coupled Full-Envelope Trajectory Planning for Large Tail-Sitter UAVs
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Full-envelope trajectory planning for large tail-sitter uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), covering vertical flight, forward and backward transitions, and fixed-wing cruise, is challenging because the vehicle dynamics and planning requirements vary substantially across flight regimes. These difficulties are exacerbated during mode transitions, where strong aerodynamic coupling coincides with limited thrust margins and appreciable actuation lag characteristic of large platforms. This paper proposes a phase-coupled full-envelope trajectory planning framework tailored for large tail-sitter UAVs. The transition and cruise phases are optimized with phase-specific objectives and coupled through dynamically compatible boundary states. For transition planning, aerodynamic variation, thrust feasibility, and thrust rate are explicitly regulated to account for limited thrust margins and actuation lag, while a planar zero-roll strategy is adopted to reduce lateral maneuvering during mode conversion. Together with a unified polynomial representation, this coupling preserves high-order continuity across phase boundaries. The framework is evaluated through numerical analysis, comparative high-fidelity simulations, and real-flight experiments on the Eagle of Taihu 10 (ET10) platform. Comparative results indicate improved trajectory tracking accuracy over representative baselines, while real-flight experiments demonstrate the practical feasibility and trackability of the generated full-envelope trajectories.
Authors: Zhixiong Xu, Li Fan, Chao Xu
Institution: Zhejiang University
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,645
OpenAlex ID: W7223144543