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Theses and Dissertations

Theses/Dissertations

2014

Tailsitter

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

System Identification Of An Unmanned Tailsitter Aircraft, Nathan W. Edwards Aug 2014

System Identification Of An Unmanned Tailsitter Aircraft, Nathan W. Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

The motivation for this research is the need to improve performance of the autonomous flight of a tailsitter UAV. Tailsitter aircraft combine the hovering and vertical take-off and landing capability of a rotorcraft with the long endurance flight capability of a fixed-wing aircraft. The particular aircraft used in this research is the V-Bat, a tailsitter UAV with a conventional wing and the propeller and control surfaces located within a ducted-fan tail assembly. This research focuses on identifying the models and parameters of the V-Bat in hover and level flight as a basis for the design of the control systems for …


Development Of Tailsitter Hover Estimation And Control, Jason M. Beach Feb 2014

Development Of Tailsitter Hover Estimation And Control, Jason M. Beach

Theses and Dissertations

UAVs have become an essential tool in many market segments, particularly the military where critical intelligence can be gathered by them. A tailsitter aircraft is a platform whose purpose is to efficiently merge the range and endurance of fixed-wing aircraft with the VTOL capabilities of rotorcraft and is of significant value in applications where launch and recovery area is limited or the use of launch and recovery equipment is not desirable. Developing autopilot software for a tailsitter UAV is unique in that the aircraft must be autonomously controlled over a much wider range of attitudes than conventional UAVs. Assumptions made …