Abstract: Based on the relative position and the line of sight between the receiver and the tanker aircraft, the receiver's normal and lateral flight acceleration command are generated using a sliding mode method to meet the trajectory chasing requirement. A dynamic inversion method is used to transform the desired acceleration to angular rate according to the kinematic relations. The roll angle command is designed to coordinate bank-toturn simultaneously. Tracking control of the angular rate loop is achieved using dynamic inversion. The forward acceleration command is generated according to the relative speed and range between the receiver and tanker. The velocity control law is designed using dynamic inversion. Nonlinear digital simulation results demonstrate that the controller is capable of guiding the receiver to rendezvous with the tanker, and the transient performance is good.

Key words: aerial refueling, rendezvous, sliding mode control, dynamic inversion