Control of a hybrid helicopter with wings

Wagter, Christophe De; Smeur, E.J.J.

doi:10.1177/1756829317702674

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Previous research developed a CD model which assumes a rigid rotor. 13 This work compared the CD model with a linearized TPP model of the attitude dynamics based on work by Mettler. 18 A system identification modeling approach was chosen and chirps were used as system identification maneuver to fit a wide frequency range.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rotor inertia of the DelftaCopter was shown to be sufficiently large to significantly affect the dynamics of the rigid body, yet is too small to act as a pure gyroscope as in a conventional helicopter described by Kondak et al 12 The proposed model allowed to create a working controller, but only modeled the lowfrequency dynamics in hover. 13 Several other single rotor concepts were proposed like the AeroVel Flexrotor, 14 but these do not report the same properties as the DelftaCopter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling the unstable DelftaCopter vertical take-off and landing tailsitter unmanned air vehicle in hover and forward flight from flight test data

Wagter

Meulenbeld

2019

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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The DelftaCopter is a tilt-body tailsitter unmanned air vehicle which combines a large swashplate controlled helicopter rotor with a biplane delta-wing. Previous research has shown that the large moment of inertia of the wing and fuselage significantly interacts with the dynamics of the rotor. While this rigid rotor cylinder dynamics model has allowed initial flight testing, part of the dynamics remains unexplained. In particular, higher frequency dynamics and the forward flight dynamics were not modeled. In this work, the cylinder dynamics model is compared with the tip-path plane model, which includes the steady-state flapping dynamics of the blades. The model is then extended to include the wing and elevon dynamics during forward flight. Flight test data consisting of excitations with a large frequency content are used to identify the model parameters using grey-box modeling. Since the DelftaCopter is unstable, flight tests can only be performed while at least a rate feedback controller is active. To reduce the influence of this active controller on the identification of the dynamics, one axis is identified at a time while white noise is introduced on all other axes. The tippath plane model is shown to be much more accurate in reproducing the high-frequency attitude dynamics of the DelftaCopter. The significant rotor-wing interaction is shown to differ greatly from what is seen in traditional helicopter models. Finally, an Linear-Quadratic Regulator (LQR) controller based on the tip-path plane model is derived and tested to validate its applicability. Modeling the attitude dynamics of the unstable DelftaCopter from flight test data has been shown to be possible even in the presence of the unavoidable baseline controller.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the unstable DelftaCopter vertical take-off and landing tailsitter unmanned air vehicle in hover and forward flight from flight test data

Wagter

Meulenbeld

2019

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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“…To investigate the dynamics of the DelftaCopter rotor and fuselage, a simplified model was derived (De Wagter & Smeur, ). Figure illustrates the basic rotor model with rotor radius R and spinning rate ω.…”

Section: Rotor‐head Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To simulate and understand observed pitch and roll couplings, a fuselage model is added. Fuselage inertia is playing a crucial role in the control when the fuselage inertia becomes significant compared to the rotor inertia (De Wagter & Smeur, ). In the DelftaCopter the weight is spread over the very long wing with a lot of electronics like radios and antennas being placed in the wing tips for electronics reasons.…”

Section: Rotor‐head Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design, control, and visual navigation of the DelftaCopter VTOL tail‐sitter UAV

Wagter

Ruijsink

Smeur

et al. 2018

Journal of Field Robotics

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To participate in the Outback Medical Express UAV Challenge 2016, a vehicle was designed and tested that can autonomously hover precisely, takeoff and land vertically, fly fast forward efficiently, and use computer vision to locate a person and a suitable landing location. The vehicle is a novel hybrid tail-sitter combining a delta-shaped biplane fixed-wing and a conventional helicopter rotor. The rotor and wing are mounted perpendicularly to each other,and the entire vehicle pitches down to transition from hover to fast forward flight where the rotor serves as propulsion.To deliver sufficient thrust in hover while still being efficient in fast forward flight, a custom rotor system was designed. The theoretical design was validated with energy measurements, wind tunnel tests, and application in real-world missions. A rotor-head and corresponding control algorithm were developed to allow transitioning flight with the nonconventional rotor dynamics that are caused by the fuselage rotor interaction. Dedicated electronics were designed that meet vehicle needs and comply with regulations to allow safe flight beyond visual line of sight.Vision-based search and guidance algorithms running on a stereo-vision fish-eye camera were developed and tested to locate a person in cluttered terrain never seen before. Flight tests and a competition participation illustrate the applicability of the DelftaCopter concept. K E Y W O R D Saerial robotics, control, emergency response, perception, sensors

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