A directly coil-actuated cyclic pitch control based rotor: Design, modeling, and analysis

Abstract

This work introduces a directly coil-actuated cyclic pitch control method for the swashplate-less aircraft. This method drives the rotor to rotate periodically around the pitch axis through a magnetic field. The sensitive parameters that affect pitch motion are analyzed and optimized by simulation. Next, the aerodynamic model of the rotor is established by idealizing the blade as a centrally hinged rigid body with a spring restraint, and then the kinematic model of the rotor system is obtained. A state feedback attitude control method is proposed based on the kinematic model. The feasibility of the directly coil-actuated cyclic pitch control method is verified by comparing the results of mechanical experiments and numerical calculations. Moreover, the attitude response of the rotor system is evaluated through attitude experiments.