Design and testing of a ground roll runway centerline tracking controller for a general aviation research aircraft

This paper deals with the development, implementation and testing of an aircraft ground roll runway centerline tracking controller for a modified general aviation Diamond Aircraft Industries DA42 M-NG aircraft. The controller was designed for the takeoff run as well as the rollout after an automatic landing. In contrast to many existing solutions, the controller presented in this paper had to cope with the mechanical link between nose wheel steering and rudder as well as limited control authority of the nose wheel steering at low speeds. The ground controller was tested and demonstrated in roll and flight tests. Corresponding results are shown to demonstrate the performance of the controller.