Autopilot

There are three levels of control in autopilots for smaller aircraft. A single-axis autopilot controls an aircraft in the roll axis only. A two-axis autopilot controls an aircraft in the pitch axis as well as roll axis with pitch-oscillation-correcting ability. A three-axis autopilot adds control in the yaw axis and is not required in many small aircraft. The 3 different axes mentioned are shown in Fig 1.1. The flight may also receive inputs from on-board radio navigation systems to provide true automatic flight guidance once the aircraft has taken off until shortly before landing.

In the early days of aviation, aircraft required the continuous attention of a pilot in order to fly safely. As aircraft range increased allowing flights of many hours, the constant attention led to serious fatigue. An autopilot is designed to perform some of the tasks of the pilot. Along the flight path the vehicle is under the influence of various accelerating forces in all directions and these factors cause it to deviate from its desired path. So the plane loses its heading as well as orientation. This is where autopilot comes into picture.

The basic objective of our project is to design and develop an auto pilot control system which can maintain the desired orientation of the glider. The acceleration data in all 3 axes are obtained by the combination of acceleration and gyroscopes and the angles of roll, pitch and yaw are calculated. These values are taken for estimation using a Kalman filter and the resulting values helps us in the decision making. The flight is kept in its path and desired orientation with the help of servo motors.