Autonomous thermal soaring of a fixed wing UAV using temperature sensors

The efficiency of fixed wing Micro Aerial Vehicles can be improved if their endurance can be increased by thermal soaring. This requires development of a soaring strategy that can detect, map, and utilize thermals based on the temperature characteristics and implementation of that strategy on a UAV equipped with two different temperature sensors. In this thesis, a simulation model is developed for the thermal soaring method. A climate model with velocity and temperature characteristics is developed to validate the soaring method in the simulation. A Small Unmanned Aerial System with two different temperature sensors is developed for a fixed wing UAV. Finally, a Hardware in the Loop simulation setup is developed that can validate the working of the unmanned system. The results of simulation show that if the UAV is able to detect thermals using two different temperature sensors, it can utilize the updraft to remain airborne for longer duration