GPS based altitude control of an unmanned air vehicle using digital terrain elevation data

Download

index.pdf

Date

2006

Author

Ataç, Selçuk

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

274
views

67
downloads

In this thesis, an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) is used to develop a prototype base test platform for flight testing of new control algorithms and avionics for advanced UAV system development applications. A control system that holds the UAV at a fixed altitude above the ground is designed and flight tested. Only the longitudinal motion of the UAV is considered during the controller design, hence its lateral motions are controlled manually by a remote control unit from the ground. UAV’s altitude with respect to the mean sea level and position are obtained by an onboard global positioning system (GPS) and this information is transmitted to the ground computer via radio frequency (RF) communication modules. The altitude of the UAV above the ground is calculated by using the digital terrain elevation data (DTED). A controller is designed and its gains are tuned to maintain this flight altitude at a desired value by using the mathematical model developed to represent the longitudinal dynamics of the UAV. Input signals generated by the controller for elevator deflections are transmitted back to the UAV via RF communication modules to drive onboard servomotors to generate desired elevator deflections. All controller computations and RF communications are handled by a MATLAB® based platform on a ground computer. UAV flight tests are carried out at two different autopilot modes; namely, mean sea level (MSL) altitude hold mode and above ground level (AGL) altitude hold mode. The developed platform worked properly during flight tests and proved to be reliable in almost every condition. Moreover, the designed controller system is demonstrated to be effective and it fulfills the requirements.

Subject Keywords

Control Engineering Systems., Automatic Machinery (General).

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12607383/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/16187

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Angular acceleration assisted stabilization of a-2 DOF gimbal platform Öztürk, Taha; Leblebicioğlu, Mehmet Kemal; Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2010) In this thesis work construction of the angular acceleration signal of a 2-DOF gimbal platform and use of this signal for improving the stabilization performance is aimed. This topic can be divided into two subtopics, first being the construction of angular acceleration and the second being the use of this information in a way to improve system performance. Both problems should be tackled in order to get satisfactory results. The most important output of this work is defined as the demonstration of the impr...
Construction of an experimental radar system Kılıçoğlu, Nezaket; Koç, Seyit Sencer; Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2010) In this thesis, an Experimental Radar System is designed and constructed for use in experimental radar studies such as clutter measurement and target detection, both in the laboratory and outdoor. COTS laboratory equipments are utilized as hardware elements of the radar and MATLAB is used as signal processing and user interface software tool. Vector signal generator (as transmitter), spectrum analyzer with vector signal analysis (as receiver), a high power amplifier, a low noise amplifier, horn antennas and...
Modeling and real-time control system implementation for a Stewart Platform Albayrak, Onur; Arıkan, Mehmet Ali Sahir; Department of Mechanical Engineering (2005) This work focuses on modeling and real-time control of a motion simulator for dynamic testing of a two-axis gyro-stabilized head mirror used in modern tanks. For this purpose, a six-degree-of freedom Stewart Platform which can simulate disturbances on the stabilized head mirror during operation of the tank is employed. Mathematical models of the Stewart Platform are constructed using MATLAB and ADAMS. Control system infrastructure is constructed and real-time control system elements are employed. Controller...
Modeling and control of a stabilization system Afacan, Kamil; Balkan, Raif Tuna; Department of Mechanical Engineering (2004) Elevation axis model of a barrel stabilization system is constructed. The nonlinearities which are considered in the model are orifice flow characteristics, coulomb friction, hard-stop limits, kinematics of the system and unbalance on the barrel. A Simulink® model for the servo valve, actuation system and barrel is constructed. Servo valve identification is made via the actual test data. Compressibility of the hydraulic fluid is taken into consideration while modeling the actuation system. Friction model is...
Control System Design of a Vertical Take-off and Landing Fixed-Wing UAV Cakici, Ferit; Leblebicioğlu, Mehmet Kemal (2016-05-20) In this study, design and implementation of control system of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vechicle (UAV) with level flight capability is considered. The platform structure includes both multirotor and fixed-wing (FW) conventional aircraft control surfaces: therefore named as VTOL-FW. The proposed method includes implementation of multirotor and airplane controllers and design of an algorithm to switch between them in achieving transitions between VTOL and FW flight modes. Thus, VT...

Citation Formats

S. Ataç, “GPS based altitude control of an unmanned air vehicle using digital terrain elevation data,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2006.