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Mathematical Modelling and Control of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Moving Mass Control Concept

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Abstract

In this paper we present a novel concept of attitude control for a multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle by actively controlling its center of gravity. This research is a part of our efforts to build a heavy lift multi-rotor platform capable of carrying over 50 kg of payload. To that end, we propose using miniature two-stroke combustion engines to supply the necessary lift and combine them with moving masses used to control the vehicle attitude. In this paper we present a complete nonlinear dynamical model of such a vehicle and use it to derive the transfer functions of roll and pitch dynamics. Furthermore, we formulate a detailed root-locus based stability and sensitivity analysis of the proposed control scheme and discuss its underlining effect on the mechanical parameter design. We present the experimental testbed, consisted of the vehicle mounted on a 2 degrees of freedom gimbal, and derive necessary conditions for testbed parameters in order to match the testbed and free-flight quadrotor dynamics. Finally, we present simulation results from a Gazebo based simulator and experimental results of the testbed. Both results confirm the findings of our mathematical analysis.

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Acknowledgements

This research is sponsored by NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division in the framework of the Science for Peace and Security Programme as Multi Year Project under G. A. number 984807, named Unmanned system for maritime security and environmental monitoring - MORUS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Unska 3, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Tomislav Haus, Matko Orsag & Stjepan Bogdan

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  1. Tomislav Haus
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  2. Matko Orsag
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  3. Stjepan Bogdan
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Correspondence to Tomislav Haus.

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Haus, T., Orsag, M. & Bogdan, S. Mathematical Modelling and Control of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Moving Mass Control Concept. J Intell Robot Syst 88, 219–246 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-017-0545-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-017-0545-2

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