Abstract
Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (H-UAVs) are currently a very interesting field of research in the modern scientific community due to their ability to perform Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) and Conventional Take-Off and Landing (CTOL). This paper focuses on the Dual Tilt-wing UAV, a vehicle capable of performing both flight modes (VTOL and CTOL). The UAV complete dynamic model is obtained using the Newton–Euler formulation, which includes aerodynamic effects, as the drag and lift forces of the wings, which are a function of airstream generated by the rotors, the cruise speed, tilt-wing angle and angle of attack. The airstream velocity generated by the rotors is studied in a test bench. The projected area on the UAV wing that is affected by the airstream generated by the rotors is specified and 3D aerodynamic analysis is performed for this region. In addition, aerodynamic coefficients of the UAV in VTOL mode are calculated by using Computational Fluid Dynamics method (CFD) and are embedded into the nonlinear dynamic model. To validate the complete dynamic model, PD controllers are adopted for altitude and attitude control of the vehicle in VTOL mode, the controllers are simulated and implemented in the vehicle for indoor and outdoor flight experiments.
Highlights
In recent times, many UAV types have been developed with the purpose of expanding their features, flight modes, applications, missions, etc
To validate the dynamic model, PD controllers are adopted for altitude and attitude control for stabilizing the hover flight mode which is a critical phase of operation since normally airplanes do not perform hover flights
The flight in Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) mode is analyzed, the equations are simplified for VTOL flight mode conditions
Summary
Many UAV types have been developed with the purpose of expanding their features, flight modes, applications, missions, etc. The main contribution of this paper is to provide the UAV’s complete dynamical model, namely, for its different flight modes (vertical flight, transition and horizontal flight), because many dynamic models of tilt-wing UAVs are 3, 4 or more rotors and one or two fixed-wings [10,11,12]. The stabilization of those vehicles can be achieved more since they have more actuators to generate the necessary torques to stabilize the attitude of the aircraft.
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