Autonomous Soaring: The Montague Cross-Country Challenge
Autonomous Soaring: The Montague Cross-Country Challenge
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自主翱翔：蒙塔古越野挑战赛
DOI：
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Daniel J. Edwards
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Daniel J. Edwards
一种新的方法被开发出来用于定位和允许滑翔机停留在热气流（对流上升气流）中。该方法应用于一架5公斤重的滑翔机，名为ALOFT（热力自动定位器），该滑翔机参加了2008年6月13日至15日在加利福尼亚州蒙塔古举行的2008年蒙塔古越野挑战赛。在本次比赛中，5公斤级的遥控滑翔机按速度和距离进行比赛。ALOFT是已知的第一架参加飞行竞赛的自主飞行飞机，它的参赛为人工飞行和自主飞行的有效性提供了有价值的比较。ALOFT在总得分上排名第三，在集中和利用上升气流的能力上优于手动飞行的飞机，特别是在高海拔和有风的情况下，以更优的空速飞行，并直接在转弯点之间飞行。结果证实，自主飞行是一个真正的工程分支学科，预计会引起工程师的兴趣，他们可能会发现这在航空工业中有一些用途。
A novel method was developed for locating and allowing gliders to stay in thermals (convective updrafts). The method was applied to a 5 kg, glider, called ALOFT (autonomous locator of thermals), that was entered in the 2008 Montague Cross-Country Challenge held on 13-15 June 2008 in Montague, California. In this competition, remote-controlled gliders in the 5 kg class competed on the basis of speed and distance. ALOFT was the first known autonomously soaring aircraft to enter a soaring competition and its entry provided a valuable comparison between the effectiveness of manual soaring and autonomous soaring. ALOFT placed third in the competition in overall points, outperforming manually-flown aircraft in its ability to center and use updrafts, especially at higher altitudes and in the presence of wind, to fly more optimal airspeeds, and to fly directly between turn points. The results confirm that autonomous soaring is a bona fide engineering subdiscipline, which is expected to be of interest to engineers, who might find that this has some utility in the aviation industry.