A Study of the Control of Micro Air Vehicles Using the Linear Dynamic Inverse Approach

Results are presented from an initia l investigation that considers the control of a 9 -inch ducted fan driven micro air vehicle (MAV) during hover, with application of the linear dynamic inverse (DI) approach for implementation. A linear state space model based upon actual wind tunnel test da ta representing the hover mode is analyzed using the DI technique. The analysis shows that DI performs well with respect to stability, gain/phase margins, damping characteristics, and actuator saturation limits with 20 percent deviations in structured para meters and random model changes. A future investigation will include the performance of the MAV using the nonlinear dynamic inverse (NDI) technique for the full flight envelope, without any special consideration of a linearized operating point as done in t he present analysis.