Unmanned aerial vehicle aerodynamic model identification from a racetrack manoeuvre

Abstract

The determination of aircraft stability and control derivatives from wind-tunnel and computational fluid dynamics data can be an expensive and time-consuming procedure. This case study shows how linear system identification techniques can be used to obtain this information with sufficient accuracy to design a satisfactory flight control system for an aerial target of the Royal Thai Air Force. Just one flight was undertaken, using a racetrack manoeuvre, to provide the data for identification and validation. The system parameters were identified and a flight control system was designed. Hardware-in-the-loop simulation was used to perform initial tests on the controller and to test the control system hardware and software. A second flight was performed to test the resulting controller, and a satisfactory performance was obtained without the need to adjust the controller gains.