Designing autopilot and guidance algorithms to control translational and rotational dynamics of a fixed wing VTOL UAV

Download
2020
Güçlü, Anı
Guidance and autopilot algorithms are designed and applied to a fixed wing VTOL air vehicle. The algorithms are developed on a rotary wing and a fixed air vehicle. Each air vehicle is identified by experimentation to reduce the discrepancies among the system model and the actual air vehicles. Designed controllers for the air vehicles are deployed to Pixhawk Cube controller board. Indoor and outdoor flight tests are carried out. For the rotary wing air vehicle, active disturbance rejection control algorithms are used to control the states. Trajectory tracking is also carried out with distinct load cases which are unloaded, asymmetrically placed constant load, and slung load. Disturbances which are induced by the loads and the environment are estimated and rejected during indoor and outdoor tests. Control allocation algorithms are focused and applied to a fixed wing VTOL air vehicle for the flight phases among vertical and horizontal flights. Consumed energy during the flight is minimized by a dynamic direct control allocation algorithm. Desired force and moments (virtual inputs) which comes from the controllers are mapped to the set of actuators via control allocation algorithms. The fixed wing VTOL air vehicle is loaded with two loads underneath of the main wing. In the scenario, the fixed wing VTOL air vehicle takes off with loads. One of them is released at a point, and then the asymmetric load is carried to another point. Developed active disturbance control allocation and control allocation algorithms are used together.

Suggestions

Design and analysis of a VTOL Tilt-Wing UAV
Çakır, Hasan; Kurtuluş, Dilek Funda; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2020)
In this study, the design and analysis of a UAV, which is capable of vertical take-off and landing using fixed six rotors placed on the tilt-wing and tilt-tail, will be explained. The aircraft has four rotors on its wing and two rotors on its tail. The main wing and horizontal tail are capable of 90° tilting. Both aerodynamic and thrust forces are used during VTOL, transition, and forward flight. Aerodynamic analysis has been performed in ANSYS Fluent v.18. A non-linear six DoF model, involving a 3D CAD mod...
Design and aerodynamic analysis of a VTOL tilt-wing UAV
Cakir, Hasan; Kurtuluş, Dilek Funda (2022-01-01)
The aerodynamic design and analysis of an Unmanned Air Vehicle, capable of vertical take-off and landing by employing fixed four rotors on the tilt-wing and two rotors on the tilt-tail, will be presented in this study. Both main wing and the horizontal tail can be tilted 90 degrees. During VTOL, transition and forward flight, aerodynamic and thrust forces have been employed. Different flight conditions, including the effects of angle of attack, side slip, wing tilt angle and control surfaces deflection angl...
Design, modeling and control of a hybrid UAV
Muratoğlu, Abdurrahim; Tekinalp, Ozan; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2019)
Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles that can fly like conventional airplanes after the takeoff, provide a promising area to find applications in the future. These hybrid vehicles combine the advantages of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft configurations such as having capability of hovering flight, takeoff and landing without utilizing a runway, long range, high speed flight with reasonable endurance. In this study, a tilt-rotor tricopter VTOL UAV having a conventional fixed-wing airframe is desi...
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...
Design and analysis of a mode-switching micro unmanned aerial vehicle
Cakici, Ferit; Leblebicioğlu, Mehmet Kemal (SAGE Publications, 2016-12-01)
In this study, design and analysis of a mode-switching vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with level flight capability is considered. The design of the platform includes both multirotor and fixed-wing (FW) conventional airplane structures; therefore named as VTOL-FW. The aircraft is modeled using aerodynamical principles including post-stall conditions. Trim conditions are obtained by solving constrained optimization problems. Linear analysis techniques are utilized for trim ...
Citation Formats
A. Güçlü, “Designing autopilot and guidance algorithms to control translational and rotational dynamics of a fixed wing VTOL UAV,” Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. Aerospace Engineering., Middle East Technical University, 2020.