Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics Commons^™

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav): Flight Performance, Fevens Louis Jean

Student Works

It is important that when measuring the sideslip angle and angles of attack during flight test performance of a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), to fully understand that the Angles of attack and sideslip are parameters that aid in determining the safety of the flight as they improve stability and control of the aircraft. The disadvantage of the measurement of these angles using this method is low accuracy of measurement due to friction to the potentiometers in connection with the vanes. To counter this, a new sensing method was developed to minimize friction and collect more accurate data. The method is …

A Hybrid Optimization Technique Applied To The Intermediate-Target Optimal Control Problem, Clay J. Humphreys, Richard G. Cobb, David R. Jacques, Jonah A. Reeger

Faculty Publications

The DoD has introduced the concept of Manned-Unmanned Teaming, a subset of which is the loyal wingman. Optimal control techniques have been proposed as a method for rapidly solving the intermediate-target (mid-point constraint) optimal control problem. Initial results using direct orthogonal collocation and a gradient-based method for solving the resulting nonlinear program reveals a tendency to converge to or to get `stuck’ in locally optimal solutions. The literature suggested a hybrid technique in which a particle swarm optimization is used to quickly find a neighborhood of a more globally minimal solution, at which point the algorithm switches to a gradient-based …

Design Of Synthetic Jet Actuator For Flight Control Of Small Uav, Priyanka Pagadala

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The main idea of this project is to develop a prototype SJA - Synthetic Jet Actuator to embed into a small UAV with modified Glauert wing cross-section for Active Flow Control. Apart from lift enhancement, drag reduction, or separation control, etc; LCO suppression might be possible by modifying the boundary layer through the use of these actuators. For initial investigation, a wing section with span of 12.4 cm and chord of 14 cm was fabricated and tests were conducted in the subsonic wind tunnel at the free stream velocities of 5 and 10 m / s. From these experiments, lift …

Feedback Speed Control Of A Small Two-Stroke Internal Combustion Engine That Propels An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Paul D. Fjare

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) require intelligent control of their power source. Small UAV are typically powered by electric motors or small two-stroke internal combustion (IC) engines. Small IC engines allow for longer flight times but are more difficult to control and cause significant ground noise. A hybrid operation that uses the engine at high altitudes and the electric motors at low altitudes is desired. This would allow for extended flight with acceptable ground noise levels. Since the engine can not be restarted in the air it must be able to remain at idle for an extended time without stalling. A …

Uav Formation Flight Utilizing A Low Cost, Open Source Configuration, Christian W. Lopez

Master's Theses

The control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a swarm or cooperative team scenario has been a topic of great interest for well over a decade, growing steadily with the advancements in UAV technologies. In the academic community, a majority of the studies conducted rely on simulation to test developed control strategies, with only a few institutions known to have nurtured the infrastructure required to propel multiple UAV control studies beyond simulation and into experimental testing. With the Cal Poly UAV FLOC Project, such an infrastructure was created, paving the way for future experimentation with multiple UAV control systems. …

Flying Qualities Built-In-Test For Unmanned Aerial Systems, Alton Pak-Hin Chiu

Master's Theses

This paper presents a flying qualities built-in-test for UAS application with the scope limited to the longitudinal axis. A doublet input waveform excites the AV and both α and q are used by EUDKF to estimate the A and B matrices which are short period approximations of the system. ζ, ω, GM, PM, observability, and controllability are calculated to determine flying qualities with the results displayed to the AVO in a color-coded, easy to interpret display.

While SID algorithms have been flying in vehicles with adaptive control schemes, vehicles with other schemes (such as classical feedback) lack this built-in self …

Nonlinear Uav Flight Control Using Command Filtered Backstepping, Brian M. Borra

Master's Theses

The aim of this effort is to implement a nonlinear flight control architecture, specifically flight path control via command filtered backstepping, for use in AME UAS's Fury® 1500 unmanned flying wing aircraft. Backstepping is a recursive, control-effort minimizing, constructive design procedure that interlaces the choice of a Lyapunov function with the design of feedback control. It allows the use of certain plant states to act as intermediate, virtual controls, for others breaking complex high order systems into a sequence of simpler lower-order design tasks.

Work herein is a simplified implementation based on publications by Farrell, Sharma, and Polycarpou. Online approximation …

Aether, Thomas Cameron, Kristine Colton, Daren Childers

Electrical Engineering

Aether is a RC-style autonomous air vehicle that utilizes GPS positioning along with a wireless communication system to achieve a computer-controlled flight.

This report will incorporate the acquisition, design, integration, implementation and testing phases of the UAV development. Furthermore a discussion of troubleshooting as well as improvements for future projects will be included.

Autonomous Control Of The Cal Poly Motion Flight Simulator, Andrew M. Anderson

Aerospace Engineering

An autonomous controller for the Cal Poly Motion Flight Simulator was developed such that the simulated Van’s RV-7 flies a standard light aircraft traffic pattern without any human pilot input. First, an autopilot was developed in Simulink to control the aircraft’s altitude, airspeed, and heading independent of each other. The performance of the autopilot has been tested to perform with a response sufficient for precise navigation. A C++ s- function was written as a mission controller that followed a pre-programmed path around a known airport. The aircraft performs a standard left 45 degree entry into the traffic pattern, lands on …

Formation Feedback Control Of Uav Flight, Stephen Stegall

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis is a study of formation control with autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles using the formation as feedback. There is also an investigation of formation methods presenting insight into different algorithms for formations. A rigid formation is achieved using a proportional-derivative virtual structure with a formation feedback controller. There is an emphasis on stick controlled aerodynamics. The rigid formation is verified by a simulation of a longitudinal model. Formation control ideas are presented for rigid formations.

Application Of Parent-Child Uav Tasking For Wildfire Detection And Response, Stephen T. Kubik

Master's Theses

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become a dominant force in the aerospace industry. Recent technological developments have moved these aircraft from remote operation roles to more active response missions. Of particular interest is the possibility of applying UAVs toward solving complex problems in long-endurance missions. Under that belief, the feasibility of utilizing UAVs for wildfire detection and response was investigated in a partnership that included NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate, and the United States Forest Service. Under NASA’s Intelligent Mission Management (IMM) project, research was conducted to develop a mission architecture that would …