Flight controller design and demonstration of quad-tilt-wing unmanned aerial vehicle

M Sato, K Muraoka - Journal of guidance, control, and dynamics, 2015 - arc.aiaa.org
M Sato, K Muraoka
Journal of guidance, control, and dynamics, 2015arc.aiaa.org
This paper concerns the flight controller design of aircraft that has significant changes in
aerodynamic characteristics and addresses the flight controller design of a quad-tilt-wing
unmanned aerial vehicle that has vertical takeoff and landing as well as high-speed cruise
capabilities. The quad-tilt-wing unmanned aerial vehicle has a tandem wing that tilts
between vertical to horizontal positions. This configuration change significantly alters its
aerodynamic characteristics, and therefore requires a gain-scheduled flight controller. The …
This paper concerns the flight controller design of aircraft that has significant changes in aerodynamic characteristics and addresses the flight controller design of a quad-tilt-wing unmanned aerial vehicle that has vertical takeoff and landing as well as high-speed cruise capabilities. The quad-tilt-wing unmanned aerial vehicle has a tandem wing that tilts between vertical to horizontal positions. This configuration change significantly alters its aerodynamic characteristics, and therefore requires a gain-scheduled flight controller. The gain-scheduled flight controller, which consists of a gain-scheduled stability augmentation system, a gain-scheduled control augmentation system, and a gain-scheduled turn coordinator, is also required to be robust against modeling errors because the motion dynamics of the quad-tilt-wing unmanned aerial vehicle are inherently unstable at almost all wing tilt angles and the precise aerodynamic characteristics are not available. To this end, this paper proposes a design method for structured gain-scheduled flight controllers by combining a conventional gain-scheduled controller design method and multiple-model approach to satisfy the robustness requirement, and it designs a gain-scheduled flight controller for the quad-tilt-wing unmanned aerial vehicle. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by flight tests during which the quad-tilt-wing unmanned aerial vehicle successfully achieved full conversion flight: that is, vertical takeoff, accelerating transition, high-speed cruise, decelerating transition, and vertical landing, as well as super-short takeoff.
AIAA Aerospace Research Center