Carrot-X-Plane-Autopilot: Autopilot in Java with GUI

Overview

This project consists of an autopilot for X-Plane to follow a flight plan defined by waypoints, including both lateral and vertical guidance. A graphical interface displays the aircraft's position and route.

Features

• Lateral Guidance: Implements the ‘Carrot-Chasing Algorithm’, where the aircraft follows a moving reference point (the ‘carrot’) along the desired path by providing the necessary lateral acceleration and roll angle to minimize the cross-track error.

• Vertical Guidance: Uses a double PID control loop for elevator actions, maintaining a constant climb speed and a cruise altitude of 2000 ft.

• Graphical Interface: Features a GUI to display the aircraft’s position and route, with options to save and visualize the route in MATLAB and Google Earth.

References

• Ducard, G. J. (2009). Fault-tolerant flight control and guidance systems.
• Kothari, M. (2011). Algorithms for Motion Planning and Target Capturing.
• Spitzer, C., Ferrell, U., & Ferrell, T. (2017). Digital avionics handbook.
• L. Cantoni, "X-Pi: A Java-based autopilot for X-Plane," GitHub repository, 2021. Available: https://github.com/luizcantoni/x-pi