Development and application of an integrated framework for small UAV flight control development

This paper presents an integrated framework for small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight control development. The approach provides a systematic procedure for flight control design process with a set of design tools that enables control engineers to rapidly synthesize, analyze and validate a candidate controller design. A model-based environment integrated with control synthesis, off-line and real-time simulation is developed for flight control synthesis, analysis and testings. The effectiveness of the proposed integrated framework is demonstrated by applying the framework approach to a small UAV testbed. Software-in-the-loop, processor-in-the-loop and flight testings are conducted with the synthesized controller implemented. Closed-loop performance and robustness results obtained are presented.

[2]  Panagiotis Tsiotras,et al.  Modeling and Hardware-inthe-Loop Simulation for a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle , 2007 .

[3]  J. Doyle,et al.  Essentials of Robust Control , 1997 .

[4]  Nidal Jodeh,et al.  Development of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Research Platform: Modeling and Simulating with Flight Test Validation , 2006 .

[5]  Ra Hyde.  Flight Control Systems - practical issues in design and implementation , 2000 .

[6]  Yew Chai Paw.  Synthesis and validation of flight control for UAV. , 2009 .

[7]  Eugene A. Morelli,et al.  Aircraft system identification : theory and practice , 2006 .

[8]  Frank L. Lewis,et al.  Aircraft Control and Simulation , 1992 .

[9]  Gary J. Balas,et al.  Robust control of flexible structures: theory and experiments , 1990 .

[10]  Isaac Kaminer,et al.  Rapid Flight Test Prototyping System and the Fleet of UAV's and MAVs at the Naval Postgraduate School , 2004 .

[11]  Gary J. Balas,et al.  Uncertainty Modeling, Analysis and Robust Flight Control Design for a Small UAV System , 2008 .

[12]  Stephen P. Boyd,et al.  Computing optimal uncertainty models from frequency domain data , 2002, Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2002..

[13]  Kailash Kotwani,et al.  Experimental Characterization of Propulsion System for Mini Aerial Vehicle , 2004 .

[14]  YangQuan Chen,et al.  Autopilots for Small Fixed-Wing Unmanned Air Vehicles: A Survey , 2007, 2007 International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation.

[15]  Jim Ledin,et al.  Embedded Control Systems in C/C++ , 2003 .

[16]  Monal Pankaj Merchant,et al.  PROPELLER PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT FOR LOW REYNOLDS NUMBER UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE APPLICATIONS , 2005 .

[17]  Robert C. Nelson,et al.  Flight Stability and Automatic Control , 1989 .

[18]  Zhiqiang Xing,et al.  Modeling and bounding low cost inertial sensor errors , 2008, 2008 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium.

[19]  Mark B. Tischler,et al.  Advances in Aircraft Flight Control , 1996 .

[20]  J. Renfrow,et al.  F-14 flight control law design, verification, and validation using computer aided engineering tools , 1994, 1994 Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Control and Applications.

[21]  J. Junkins,et al.  Optimal Estimation of Dynamic Systems , 2004 .

[22]  Jung Soon Jang,et al.  Automation of Small UAVs using a Low Cost Mems Sensor and Embedded Computing Platform , 2006, 2006 ieee/aiaa 25TH Digital Avionics Systems Conference.

[23]  Panagiotis Tsiotras,et al.  Modelling and Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation for a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle , 2007 .

[24]  I. Kaminer,et al.  Development and applications of a rapid flight test prototyping system for unmanned air vehicles , 1999, ICIASF 99. 18th International Congress on Instrumentation in Aerospace Simulation Facilities. Record (Cat. No.99CH37025).