Modeling and Control of a Fixed-Wing High-Speed UAV

Abstract

High-speed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will be an interesting subject of study in today’s aviation technology because of their ingenuity in obtaining high speeds while maintaining good maneuverability. In this study, modeling and control of a fixed-wing high-speed mini-UAV are performed. Aerodynamic analyses of the vehicle with a wingspan of 1.2 meters and a total take-off weight of 1.1 kg are done with the help of some computational fluid dynamics software. A developed MATLAB/Simulink code evaluates flight performance after a doublet control surface disturbance with six-degrees-of-freedom flight simulations in both longitudinal and lateral directions by a developed MATLAB/Simulink code. The transfer functions are obtained by trimming the aircraft at wing-level for a speed of 155 km/h, and the maximum speed that the mini-UAV could reach is calculated as 400 km/h. Two kinds of different linear controllers are designed to hold the pitch angle of the vehicle to the desired value. The time responses of the controllers are represented, and the elevator deflection effort is evaluated. Finally, a compulsive pitch angle is wanted to be tracked by the two controllers, and their responses are compared in terms of performance and stability.