Mathematical modeling and vertical flight control of a tilt-wing UAV

This paper presents a mathematical model and vertical flight control algorithms for a new tilt-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The vehicle is capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). Due to its tilt-wing structure, it can also fly horizontally. The mathematical model of the vehicle is obtained using Newton-Euler formulation. A gravity compensated PID controller is designed for altitude control, and three PID controllers are designed for attitude stabilization of the vehicle. Performances of these controllers are found to be quite satisfactory as demonstrated by indoor and outdoor flight experiments

Robust Control for Lateral and Longitudinal Channels of Small-Scale Unmanned Helicopters

Lateral and longitudinal channels are two closely related channels whose control stability influences flight performance of small-scale unmanned helicopters directly. This paper presents a robust control approach for lateral and longitudinal channels in the presence of parameter uncertainties and exogenous disturbances. The proposed control approach is performed by two steps. First, by performing system identification in frequency domain, system model of lateral and longitudinal channels can be accurately identified. Then, a robust H∞ state feedback controller is designed to stabilize the helicopter in lateral and longitudinal channels simultaneously under extraneous disturbances situation. The proposed approach takes advantages that it reduces order of the controller by preestimating some parameters (like flapping angles) without sacrificing control accuracy. Numerical results show the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed method

Design and dynamic characterization of a gyroscopic system for aerobatic UAV helicopters

This paper describes the design, development and dynamic characterization of a high performance MEMS-based gyroscopic control system for the yaw channel of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Radio Controlled (RC) helicopters for aerobatic maneuvers. A new asymmetrical controller has been developed that compensates the torque of the main rotor thus providing equal dynamic response in clockwise and anticlockwise pirouettes. The \u201cin flight\u201d dynamic characterization showed that the proposed system can be up to five times faster than the state of the art for commercial gyros at higher yaw rates; the regime yaw rate characterization demonstrated a high and constant pirouette speed. Aerobatic tests demonstrated high accuracy entry into the maneuvers