A benchtop flight control demonstrator

Abstract

A feedback control demonstrator is described. The demonstrator is intended for the demonstration of control principles applied to flight control of fixed-wing aircraft and hence is suitable for aeronautical programmes. The demonstrator consists of a two degree-of-freedom wing assembly where the wing is free to pitch in an airflow provided by a simple, benchtop wind tunnel. The second degree-of-freedom is provided by a hinged elevator which is actuated by a servomotor. The wing pitch angle is measured with a potentiometer attached to a pivot shaft, thus allowing feedback control of the elevator pitch to be implemented. The aerodynamics of the wing are modelled, the wind tunnel design is described and computational fluid dynamics analysis presented. An embedded controller that implements a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller and a graphical interface have been developed. Some details of these are also given.

Design and Implementation of an L1 Adaptive Proportional Output Feedback Controller

“…Equation ( 28) is linear for angles of attack below stall, so a Laplace transfer function representation could be obtained by determining the coefficient values in the differential equation. However, Duran [30]…”

“…All the controllers are implemented using the Arduino IDE [34] in the C++ programming language. The PID algorithm was previously coded by [31] and is now utilised to obtain real-time responses by incorporating the PID parameters from the simulation.…”

“…This demonstrated the suitability of their test unit for teaching or educational purposes. This is similar to the flight control demonstrator unit used in this paper [30,31], which was designed to as a demonstrator of some of the principles of automatic flight control. The equipment consists of a basic aerofoil in a wind tunnel, as shown in the schematic in Figure 1.…”

Development of the SmartAnswer Demonstrator: a Didactic Wind Tunnel for Aeroacoustic Applications

“…The didactic demonstrator concept is not new: Hawkinson and Anderson [2] have pointed out the benefits of a small flight demonstration wind tunnel as an outreach tool and, especially, as an active learning environment for students. A miniature wind tunnel has also been described numerically and experimentally by Duran et al [3], who developed it to assist the undergraduate students of flight control. But to the authors' knowledge, the development of a didactic aeroacoustic demonstrator, which enables the user to experience live the noise-reduction technologies, has never been reported in the literature.…”