Modeling and Identification of a Launched Micro Air Vehicle: Design and Experimental Results

Abstract

In this paper we present a comprehensive design of a Gun Launched Micro Air Vehicle (GLMAV), a new Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) concept using two-bladed coaxial contrarotating rotors. The MAV packaged in a projectile is launched using the energy delivered by a portable weapon. When it reaches the apogee, the projectile is transformed in such a way that the MAV becomes operational over the zone to be observed. A detailed GLMAV nonlinear mathematical model was presented for hover and near-hover ∞ight conditions. An experiment using a strain-gage aerodynamic balance was designed to measure the load output data according to the input. Simpliflcations brought to the aerodynamic submodel had permitted its linearization in the parameter space. In doing so, the parameter estimation was based on the Kalman fllter linear estimation method applied to the simplifled aerodynamic model and using the input-output data from the experiment. The parameter estimation results have been presented and validated through comparisons between the model output reconstructions and other measured data sets. These flnal results had proved the good prediction capabilities of the identifled aerodynamic model.