Abstract
This paper addresses the design and modeling process of a T-tail unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A methodology is presented of how to make tradeoffs among the payload requirements, energy efficiency and aerodynamic stability. A linear decoupled model of longitudinal and lateral dynamics is abstracted from a physical airframe. Instead of subjectively estimating the order, error and time delay for system identification (system ID), equations of motion derived from aerodynamics are employed to provide more precise estimation of the model structure. System ID is carried out with regard to the flight data collected by the autopilot data logger. The resulted model is refined based on the simulation and comparison.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chao, H., Chen, Y.Q.: Cooperative Remote Sensing and Actuation Using Networked Unmanned Vehicles. Wiley (2012)
CSOIS website. [Online]. Available: http://www.csois.usu.edu. Accessed 2 Mar 2012
AggieAir™ Flying Circus. [Online]. Available: http:aggieair.usu.edu/. Accessed 2 Mar 2012
Paparazzi—The Free Autopilot. [Online]. Available: http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki. Accessed 2 Mar 2012
Luo, Y., Chao, H., Di, L., Chen, Y.Q.: Lateral directional fractional order (PI)α control of a small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles: controller designs and flight tests. IET Control TheoryAppl. 5(18), 2156–2167 (2011)
Chao, H., Luo, Y., Di, L., Chen, Y.Q.: Roll-channel fractional order controller design for a small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle. Control Eng. Pract. 18, 761–772 (2010)
Di, L., Chao, H., Han, J., Chen, Y.Q.: Cognitive multi-UAV formation flight: principle, low-cost UAV testbed, controller tuning and experiments. In: Proc. of 7th ASME/IEEE Intl. Conf. on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications (MESA11), Washington, DC (2011)
Chao, H., Cao, Y., Chen, Y.Q.: Autopilots for small unmanned aerial vehicles: a survey. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 8(1), 36–44 (2010)
AlSwailenm, S.I.: Application of robust control in unmanned vehicle flight control system design. Ph.D. dissertation, College of Aeronautics, Cranfield Univ., UK (2004)
Chao, H., Luo, Y., Di, L., Chen, Y.Q.: Fractional order flight control of a small fixed-wing UAV: controller design and simulation study. In: Proc. of IDETC/CIE 2009, pp. 621–628 (2009)
Liu, M., Egan, G., Ge, Y.: Identification of attitude flight dynamics for an unconventional UAV. In: Proc. of IEEE Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Beijing, pp. 3243–3248 (2006)
Wu, H., Sun, D., Zhou, Z.: Model identification of a micro air vehicle in loitering flight based on attitude performance evaluation. IEEE Trans. Robotics 20, 702–712 (2004)
Cai, G., Chen, B.M., Peng, K., Dong, M., Lee, T.H.: Modeling and control of the yaw channel of a UAV helicopter. IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron. 55(9), 3426–3434 (2008)
Santoso, F., Liu, M., Egan, G.: H 2 and H ∞ robust autopilot synthesis for longitudinal flight of a special unmanned aerial vehicle: a comparative study. IET Control Theory and Appl. 2(7), 583–594 (2008)
Baldi, P., Castaldi, P., Mimmo, N., Torre, A., Simani, S.: A new longitudinal flight path control with adaptive wind shear estimation and compensation. In: Proc. of IEEE CDC, pp. 6852–6857 (2011)
NASA Tutorial Webpage. [Online]. Available: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/virtual/demo/aeronautics/tutorial/motion.html. Accessed 2 Mar 2012
Beard, R.W., McLain, T.W.: Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Princeton University Press (2012)
Kermode, A.C.: Mechanics of Flight, 11th edn. Prentice Hall, NJ (2006)
Ansys Fluent. [Online]. Available: http://www.ansys.com/Products/Simulation+Technology/Fluid+Dynamics/ANSYS+Fluent. Accessed 2 Mar 2012
Phillips, W.F.: Mechanics of Flight. Wiley, Hoboken (2004)
Phillips, W.F.: DBF2007C.wings. [Online]. Available: http://www.neng.usu.edu/mae/faculty/wphillips/MAE5510.html. Accessed 2 Mar 2012
Rugh, W.J.: Linear System Theory, 2nd edn. Prentice Hall, NJ (1996)
Cook, M.V.: Flight Dynamics Principles: A Linear Systems Approach to Aircraft Stability and Control, 2nd edn. Elsevier, Burlington (2007)
Etkin, B., Reid, L.D.: Dynamics of Flight—Stability and Control, 3rd edn. Wiley, NJ (1996)
Castle Creations—one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic speed controls. [Online]. Available: http://www.castlecreations.com. Accessed 2 Mar 2012
Ljung, L.: System Identification—Theory For the User, 2nd edn. PTR Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River (1999)
FlightGear—a professional open-source flight simulator. [Online]. Available: http://www.flightgear.org/. Accessed 2 Mar 2012
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, Z., Hoffer, N., Stark, B. et al. Design, Modeling and Validation of a T-Tail Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. J Intell Robot Syst 69, 91–107 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-012-9726-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-012-9726-1