Automated Aerial Refueling Position Estimation Using a Scanning LiDAR

This research examines the application of using a scanning Light Detection and Ranging(LiDAR) to perform Automated Aerial Refueling(AAR). Speci cally this thesis presents two algorithms to determine the relative position between the tanker and receiver aircraft. These two algorithms require a model of the tanker aircraft and the relative attitude between the aircraft. The rst algorithm ts the measurements to the model of the aircraft using a modi ed Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm. The second algorithm uses the model to predict LiDAR scans and compare them to actual measurements while perturbing the estimated location of the tanker. Each algorithm was tested with simulated LiDAR data before real data became available from test ights. The data collected from this test ight was used to determine the accuracy of the two algorithms with real LiDAR data. After correcting for modeling errors the accuracy of each algorithm is about a Mean Radial Spherical Error of 40cm.
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