Guidance Navigation and Control Techniques for 4D Trajectory Optimization Satisfying Waypoint and No-Fly Zone Constraints

The main purpose of this research is to develop a new FMS (Flight Management System) to control a commercial airliner along an optimized 4-Dimensional Trajectory (4DT), respecting time and path constraints, and avoiding a No-Fly Zone (NFZ). The optimum, expressed in terms of minimum fuel consumption, is addressed by solving an Optimization Control Problem (OCP) by means of a numerical direct collocation scheme, namely the Chebyshev Pseudospectral method. The OCP trajectory solution is a discrete sequence of optimal aircraft states which guarantee the minimum-fuel trip between two waypoints. With the aim of controlling the aircraft along lateral, vertical and longitudinal axis , and in order to respect NFZ and waypoints constraints along the optimum 4DT, different guidance navigation and control techniques were implemented. In order to validate the effectiveness of this algorithms on the Boeing 747-100 Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS), when it has to follow a 4D cruise route, several simulations were performed by generating three FMSs in the Multipurpose Aircraft Simulation Laboratory (MASLab), a software implementing the flight dynamic model of the Boeing 747-100.