Method of guidance of unmanned aerial vehicles

1. A method of guiding an aerial vehicle towards and entering a circular orbit of specified radius about a target site, the aerial vehicle including a control element configured and operable to control the aerial vehicle and a guidance element configured and operable to provide instructions to the control element to guide the aerial vehicle, the method comprising:

calculating a desired heading error, δψ d , using a first equation: δψ d =V h /R d K φ in the guidance element;

calculating an angle θ between an instantaneous line of sight from the aerial vehicle to the target site and an offset radius using a second equation:

θ

=

π

2

-

δψ

d

in the guidance element;

calculating cos Φ using a third equation: cos Φ=1−2 cos 2 θ in the guidance element;

calculating an angle ε using a fourth equation: ε=tan −1 (R d sin Φ/Re−R d cos Φ) in the guidance element;

calculating a heading error relative to an offset target site δψ by first calculating heading error relative to a true target site and subtracting the calculated angle ε in the guidance element; and

providing instructions to the control element based on the heading error to guide the aerial vehicle towards the offset target site.

2. A method of guiding a vehicle to an intended target site and entering into and maintaining a circular path about said intended target site by said vehicle, and for regulating range error to the target site by instead regulating heading error to an offset target site, the vehicle including a control element configured to control the vehicle and a guidance element configured and operable to provide instructions to the control element to guide the vehicle, said method comprising:

obtaining information relative to estimate horizontal distance between said vehicle and said intended target site in the guidance element; and

calculating an instantaneous heading between a current position of said vehicle and the offset target site in the guidance element;

determining the position of the offset target site, that itself rotates about the intended target site in such a manner so that steering the vehicle towards the rotating offset target site results in a circular motion of the vehicle about the true target site at a specified radius in the guidance element;

utilizing said calculated instantaneous heading to generate instructions for guiding the vehicle toward the rotating offset target site; and

providing the instructions to the control element to guide the vehicle toward the rotating offset target site.