Ducted-fan Aerial Vehicle Research Articles

Modeling and control of a magnus-effect-based ducted fan aerial vehicle

A ducted fan aerial vehicle model using Magnus effect steering engine is proposed in this paper. This model utilizes a steering engine that comprises four cylinders that are symmetrically installed at the aft inside the duct. Interaction between the spinning cylinder surface and the duct jet flow causes the aerodynamic lift proportional to angular velocity of the cylinder. Therefore, operating range of the aerodynamic lift is guaranteed to be sufficiently wide. The efficiency of the proposed method is confirmed via numerical simulations on integrated flight dynamics developed in this study.

Control System Design of Ducted Fan Aerial Vehicle

This paper carried out the control system design of a DFV based on dynamical characteristic analysis, and flight experiments were carried out to validate the performance of the control system. Firstly, the characteristics such as outstanding and control difficulty were pointed out, and then the control strategy such as three forms of translation is proposed. In the end, the controller was realized and tested by a series of experiments, and the excellent performance was demonstrated by the experimental results.

Flight dynamics modeling of a small ducted fan aerial vehicle based on parameter identification

This paper presents a simple and useful modeling method to acquire a dynamics model of an aerial vehicle containing unknown parameters using mechanism modeling, and then to design different identification experiments to identify the parameters based on the sources and features of its unknown parameters. Based on the mathematical model of the aerial vehicle acquired by modeling and identification, a design for the structural parameters of the attitude control system is carried out, and the results of the attitude control flaps are verified by simulation experiments and flight tests of the aerial vehicle. Results of the mathematical simulation and flight tests show that the mathematical model acquired using parameter identification is comparatively accurate and of clear mechanics, and can be used as the reference and basis for the structural design.

Frequency Response Analysis for Dynamic Model Identification and Control of a Ducted Fan Aerial Vehicle in Hover

System Identification is a key technology for the development and integration of modern engineering systems including unconventional flying vehicles. These systems are highly parametric with complex dynamics and nonlinearities. Ducted fans are special class of these vehicles that can take off vertically, hover and cruise at very low speed. In this paper, an exact equivalent linear system is found from the non-linear dynamic model of a ducted fan by use of frequency response identification. Here, power spectral density analysis is performed, using CIFER software, to evaluate the input-output responses in hover and to derive the transfer functions based on the coherence criterion. Then, PID controllers are designed by utilizing the identified transfer functions and the performance characteristics of the controllers are evaluated in fully non-linear simulation of the system.