2 research outputs found
Modeling for Control of Symmetric Aerial Vehicles Subjected to Aerodynamic Forces
This paper participates in the development of a unified approach to the
control of aerial vehicles with extended flight envelopes. More precisely,
modeling for control purposes of a class of thrust-propelled aerial vehicles
subjected to lift and drag aerodynamic forces is addressed assuming a
rotational symmetry of the vehicle's shape about the thrust force axis. A
condition upon aerodynamic characteristics that allows one to recast the
control problem into the simpler case of a spherical vehicle is pointed out.
Beside showing how to adapt nonlinear controllers developed for this latter
case, the paper extends a previous work by the authors in two directions.
First, the 3D case is addressed whereas only motions in a single vertical plane
was considered. Secondly, the family of models of aerodynamic forces for which
the aforementioned transformation holds is enlarged.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Nonlinear Feedback Control of Axisymmetric Aerial Vehicles
We investigate the use of simple aerodynamic models for the feedback control
of aerial vehicles with large flight envelopes. Thrust-propelled vehicles with
a body shape symmetric with respect to the thrust axis are considered. Upon a
condition on the aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle, we show that the
equilibrium orientation can be explicitly determined as a function of the
desired flight velocity. This allows for the adaptation of previously proposed
control design approaches based on the thrust direction control paradigm.
Simulation results conducted by using measured aerodynamic characteristics of
quasi-axisymmetric bodies illustrate the soundness of the proposed approach