Dynamics simulation of folding wing UAVs launched from a high-altitude balloon platform

Abstract

It is a new application of the high-altitude balloon system to launch multiple small folding wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Based on the design of the launching system, we conduct numerical simulations of the ejection process from the balloon platform and the subsequent UAV wing deployment with trajectory leveling operation. We use the Kane method to establish the dynamic model of the balloon launching platform in the inertial coordinate system (ICS). By introducing the degree of freedom of UAV sliding along the sliding track, we realize the dynamic simulation of eight UAV launching processes and obtain the instantaneous separated states. The folding wing UAV first deploys its wings after ejection, which has the coupling characteristics between structural deformation and attitude adjustment. It is regarded as a multi-rigid body connecting structure composed of the fuselage and four wings. We establish the dynamic simulation model by the Kane method in the UAV body coordinate system (BCS). The Radau pseudo-spectral method is used to calculate the flight trajectory of each UAV. This paper is an engineering application research and can provide a simulation reference for the launching test of the balloon-borne folding wing UAV program.