Robust Helicopter Ship Deck Landing With Guaranteed Timing Using Shrinking-Horizon Model Predictive Control

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.22714v1
• Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2026 07:40:57 GMT
• Title: Robust Helicopter Ship Deck Landing With Guaranteed Timing Using Shrinking-Horizon Model Predictive Control
• Abstract summary: We present a runtime algorithm for autonomous helicopter landings on moving ship decks based on Shrinking-Horizon Model Predictive Control (SHMPC)<n>First, a suitable planning model capturing the relevant aspects of the full nonlinear helicopter dynamics is derived.<n>Next, we use the SHMPC together with a touchdown controller stage to ensure a pre-specified maneuver time and an associated landing time window despite the presence of disturbances.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: We present a runtime efficient algorithm for autonomous helicopter landings on moving ship decks based on Shrinking-Horizon Model Predictive Control (SHMPC). First, a suitable planning model capturing the relevant aspects of the full nonlinear helicopter dynamics is derived. Next, we use the SHMPC together with a touchdown controller stage to ensure a pre-specified maneuver time and an associated landing time window despite the presence of disturbances. A high disturbance rejection performance is achieved by designing an ancillary controller with disturbance feedback. Thus, given a target position and time, a safe landing with suitable terminal conditions is be guaranteed if the initial optimization problem is feasible. The efficacy of our approach is shown in simulation where all maneuvers achieve a high landing precision in strong winds while satisfying timing and operational constraints with maximum computation times in the millisecond range.

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