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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 96 - Hilton Head - October 2005
Agenda Location	7 SUBCOMMITTEE E - FLIGHT, PROPULSION AND AUTONOMOUS VEHCILE CONTROL SYSTEMS 7.1 Autonomous Soaring
Title	Autonomous Soaring
Presenter	Michael Allen
Affiliation	NASA
Available Downloads*	presentation video paper
	Downloads are available to members who are logged in and either Active* or attended this meeting.
Abstract	A relatively unexplored method to improve the endurance of an autonomous aircraft is to use buoyant plumes of air found in the lower atmosphere called thermals or updrafts. Glider pilots and birds commonly use updrafts to improve range, endurance, or cross-country speed. A three-degree-of-freedom simulation of the uninhabited air vehicle was used to determine the yearly effect of updrafts on performance. Surface radiation and rawinsonde balloon measurements taken at Desert Rock, Nevada, were used to determine updraft size, strength, spacing, shape, and maximum height for the simulation. Results show that an uninhabited air vehicle with a nominal endurance of 2 hours can fly a maximum of 14 hours using updrafts during the summer and a maximum of 8 hours during the winter. Recent flight tests using a 14ft span autonomous motor-glider have demonstrated that a small UAV can autonomously exploit convective updrafts using conventional aircraft sensors. A total of 23 updrafts were used by the UAV to climb an average of 567ft in each updraft during 6 research flights.