Gun Launched Micro Research Articles

Flight Phases With Tests of a Projectile-Drone Hybrid System

A fully functional prototype of a gun-launched micro air vehicle system (GLMAV) is developed for long-distance observation capabilities. A subsonic projectile is launched from an ad hoc tube and transforms into a micro air vehicle (MAV) once arrived over the site to be observed. The ballistic, transient, and operational flight phases of the GLMAV are studied theoretically and experimentally in this paper. Ballistic flight tests prove the stability of the platform in projectile mode and the availability of the inertial measurement unit and GPS measurements for the autopilot. Based on wind-tunnel measurements, a model of the transient phase is built, allowing the design and simulation of control laws for this phase. Indoor and outdoor tests of the system are successfully achieved highlighting the hovering and maneuvering flight capabilities of the GLMAV.

Hierarchical backstepping-based control of a Gun Launched MAV in crosswinds: Theory and experiment

This paper considers the problem of controlling the position and the orientation of a Gun Launched Micro Aerial Vehicle – GLMAV – despite unknown aerodynamic efforts. The proposed approach overcomes the problem of gyroscopic coupling by taking advantage from the structure of the thrust mechanism, which is made up of two counter rotating propellers. An adaptive hierarchical controller is designed, allowing the trajectory tracking and the stabilization of the vehicle's position and orientation while the unknown aerodynamic efforts are estimated by means of an identifier. The overall process is shown to be stable for constant, or slowly time varying, aerodynamic efforts. However numerical simulations demonstrate the satisfying controller's performance even with nonconstant aerodynamic efforts. Experimental results are also provided.

Control of a Gun-Launched MAV for Scene Observation

The focus of this paper is on the presentation of a hybrid projectile/MAV concept, namely the Gun-Launched Micro Air Vehicle (GLMAV), with a particular attention on the control strategy used for the hovering flight. The main objective of this concept is the remote observation of hazardous or inaccessible environments, especially for the protection of citizens and vital infrastructures and networks. Prior to its principal use as a standard MAV with two bladed coaxial counter-rotating rotors, the MAV is packaged as a projectile that is launched with the energy delivered by a portable weapon.The first part of the paper gives a description of the GLMAV concept as well as a complete nonlinear mathematical model for hover and near-hover flight. The second part of the paper emphases on nonlinear control strategies for the hover and near-hover flight, particularly backstepping control. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is illustrated and discussed with some simulations and experimental results.

Aerodynamic Performance of a Gun Launched Micro Air Vehicle

The study deals with the prediction of the aerodynamic performance of the Gun Launched Micro Air Vehicle (GLMAV) platform by using the ANSYS CFX code. A first step consisted of the validation of the numerical simulation on a two-bladed rotor, which has a diameter of 0.20 m. This micro-rotor model is the perfect reproduction at a scale of 1:10 of the rotor bench that ISL had studied in the nineties. The validation was made by the comparison of the computed thrust and torque with the measured ones. These results proved the ability of the ANSYS CFX code to predict the flow field around MAV rotors and gave us confidence for further computations. The second step consisted of an analysis of the grid convergence for the single rotor of the GLMAV platform. Finally, by using the experience gained from all previous computational investigations, the computation of aerodynamic performance of the two coaxial 0.25-m diameter counter-rotating rotors of the GLMAV was carried out in hover flight.

An Approximate Backstepping Based Trajectory Tracking Control of a Gun Launched Micro Aerial Vehicle in Crosswind

This paper considers the question of obtaining a nonlinear trajectory tracking control law for a comprehensive design of a Gun Launched Micro Aerial Vehicle (GLMAV) despite unknown aerodynamic effo...

The Transition Phase of a Gun-Launched Micro Air Vehicle

The present paper addresses the transition stage of a Gun-Launched Micro Air Vehicle (GLMAV) whose main goal is to rapidly position a rotorcraft MAV over a high-risk scene (Prison riots, blind zones: e.g. over-the-hill, etc.). The development of this robotic platform is part of an overall ongoing project (GLMAV) headed by the St. Louis French-German Research Institute (ISL). The vehicle is launched at a distance of 500 m and a height of 100 m, where the GLMAV will collect and transmit visual information from the scene. Issues raising from the use of the gun-based launching technique are discussed in detail. A control strategy is proposed to overcome such problems and to stabilize the GLMAV. High-fidelity simulations, covering ballistic and transition phases, validate the control policy adopted to face the MAV gun-launching problem.

Aerodynamic Modelling and Experimental Identification of a Coaxial-Rotor UAV

A comprehensive design of a Gun Launched Micro Air Vehicle (GLMAV) is presented. The GLMAV rotorcraft is a new Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) concept using two-bladed coaxial contra-rotating rotors and a ...

Time-Varying Observers for Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle⋆

AbstractIn this contribution we investigate the problem of linear velocity estimation of a Gun Launched Micro Air Vehicle (GLMAV), which is a new Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) concept, intended for outdoor flight, and using two-bladed coaxial contra-rotating rotors. The linear velocity estimation is realized using a simple time-varying Luenberger-like observer, and only using partial measurmements of an Inertial Management Unit (IMU). Simple conditions of the observation-error-asymptotic-stability are given in terms of physical variables of the GLMAV. The reduced-order observer stability analysis is realized through the Lyapunov approach and the Barbalat's lemma. Simulations results show the effectiveness of the estimation technique applied to the presented GLMAV model, identified from experimental results.