Smooth Reference Command Generation and Control for Transition Flight of VTOL Aircraft Using Time-Varying Optimization

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft pose a challenge in generating reference commands during transition flight. While sparsity between hover and cruise flight modes can be promoted for effective transitions by formulating ℓ₁-norm minimization problems, solving these problems offline pointwise in time can lead to non-smooth reference commands, resulting in abrupt transitions. This study addresses this limitation by proposing a time-varying optimization method that explicitly considers time dependence. By leveraging a prediction-correction interior- point time-varying optimization framework, the proposed method solves an ordinary differential equation to update reference commands continuously over time, enabling smooth reference command generation in real time. Numerical simulations with a two-dimensional Lift+Cruise vehicle validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, demonstrating its ability to generate smooth reference commands online.