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A bio-inspired flight control strategy for a tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicle

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Abstract

Wingbeat behavior and intermittent flight path are the two main characteristics of many birds. In this paper, to improve the efficiency of energy use and cruise range, a bio-inspired intermittent flight strategy with a whole flight envelope has applied to a tail-sitter aircraft. A total energy control system based transition control law has been proposed. The energy efficiency is investigated in terms of energy consumption per unit distance of different cruising modes, and the effectiveness and stability of proposed flight mode transition control law are verified by simulation. The mean mechanical power in flap-gliding flight is reduced compared with steady flight.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Automation, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Bin Zhu & Qingwei Chen

  2. Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jianzhong Zhu

Authors
  1. Bin Zhu
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  2. Jianzhong Zhu
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  3. Qingwei Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianzhong Zhu.

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Zhu, B., Zhu, J. & Chen, Q. A bio-inspired flight control strategy for a tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicle. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 63, 170203 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-019-2764-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-019-2764-1

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