Dubins path‐based dynamic soaring trajectory planning and tracking control in a gradient wind field

Summary This paper studies small unmanned aerial vehicle dynamic soaring for conserving onboard energy to extend flight endurance performance. A novel dynamic soaring path planning approach is proposed using the Dubins path. It enjoys a significant improvement in computational efficiency. In addition, a custom‐built trajectory tracking controller is developed for a nonlinear unmanned aerial vehicle dynamics model to verify the implementation of the proposed path planning approach. Extensive numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design and development.