System Identification of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Hingeless Control Effectors

This paper presents research conducted for system identi cation of an unmanned aerial vehicle to quantitatively compare control authority of conventional ailerons and jet actuators in lateral/directional motion. Locally linear state-space models were identi ed, via the Observer/Kalman lter algorithm, to reveal the dynamics of the unmanned aerial vehicle test-bed for di erent roll control e ector con gurations. The accuracy of the generated models is demonstrated by examination of residual error between the recorded ight states and the identi ed state-space model output using the recorded pilot inputs. Linear systems theory is used to (1) identify correct linearized model order for minimal realization of the equations of motion, (2) verify consistent plant dynamics across roll e ector con gurations, and (3) quantitatively assess roll e ector authority across the con gurations. The identi ed system models yield a quantitative comparison of control e ectiveness of conventional and proposed aileron actuators which align with pilot feedback and test observations.