Study on the Glider Soaring Strategy in Random Location Thermal Updraft via Reinforcement Learning

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper is generally well-written, it has only some minor flaws which should be addressed:

1. Please include references supporting the statement of lines 85-87

2. Why can the simplification mentioned in line 133 be made?

3. In fig. 8 the green and yellow dots are barely visible. It would be better to put arrows on the black curve to indicate the direction of flight.

4. How can more than 85% are exploration be reached if that is an end condition?

5. In fig 11 and 12 what is the difference between the light and dark yellow and red curves? What is the dimension of the energy rate?

Author Response

Thank you very much for your comments concerning our manuscript. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to the researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Please find the detailed responses in the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Define every variable in the text, even when looking obvious

Justify why "In the thermal updraft model, ??? and ??? can be simplified to zero" line 133.

In relation 12 D(alpha), L(alpha)

The function of the neural network is not clearly explained,: it is learning what?

The hoovering strategy (guidance) is not clearly explained, add formulas? figures?

In figure 8 it is difficult to find green and yellow points.

In figure 14 the presence and position of the two main modes are not explained.

No analysis of practical problems to implement the proposed solution on a real UAV is performed, we have only simulation results (oline, offline?)

Author Response

Thank you very much for your comments concerning our manuscript. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to the researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Please find the detailed responses in the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx