The UTA Autonomous Acrid Vehicle - Automatic Control and Navigation

Some preliminary results on the design and implementation of robust automatic controls for the University of Texas at Arlington autonomous VTOL prototype are presented. Both stability augmentation and navigational issues are addressed. The use of inexpensive sensors and actuators has resulted in a relatively large degree of uncertainty about the system model, so a robust controller is required. \.\.'e demonstrate the mixed M2/X,-optimal design methodology used to obtain the automatic controllers for this aircraft. The technique employed is a loop transfer recovery procedure which we have generalized by the removal of an assumption constraining a design variable.