Parameter effects on high-speed UAV ground directional stability using bifurcation analysis

Abstract

A loss of ground directional stability can trigger a high-speed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to veer off the runway. In order to investigate the combined effects of the key structural and operational parameters on the UAV ground directional stability from a global perspective, a fully parameterized mathematical high-speed UAV ground nonlinear dynamic model is developed considering several nonlinear factors. The bifurcation analysis procedure of a UAV ground steering system is introduced, following which the simulation efficiency is greatly improved comparing with the time-domain simulation method. Then the numerical continuation method is employed to investigate the influence of the nose wheel steering angle and the global stability region is obtained. The bifurcation parameter plane is divided into several parts with different stability properties by the saddle nodes and the Hopf bifurcation points. We find that the UAV motion states will never cross the bifurcation curve in the nonlinear system. Also, the dual-parameter bifurcation analyses are presented to give a complete description of the possible steering performance. It is also found that BT bifurcation appears when the UAV initial rectilinear velocity and the tire frictional coefficient vary. In addition, results indicate that the influence of tire frictional coefficient has an opposite trend to the influence of initial rectilinear velocity. Overall, using bifurcation analysis method to identify the parameter regions of a UAV nonlinear ground dynamic system helps to improve the development efficiency and quality during UAV designing phase.