Design, Modeling, and Control of a Composite Tilt-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

Tilt-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles combine the advantages of multirotor and fixed-wing aircraft, offering features like rapid takeoff and landing, extended endurance, and wide flight conditions. This article provides a summary of the design, modeling, and control of a composite tilt-rotor. During modeling process, aerodynamic modeling was performed on the tilting and non-tilting parts based on the subcomponent modeling method, and CFD simulation analysis was conducted on the entire unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain its accurate aerodynamic characteristics. In the process of modeling the motor propeller, the reduction of motor thrust and torque due to forward flow and tilt angle velocity is thoroughly examined, which is usually ignored in most tilt UAV propeller models. In the controller design, this paper proposes a fusion ADRC control strategy suitable for vertical takeoff and landing of this type of tiltrotor. The control system framework is built using Simulink, and the control algorithm’s efficiency has been verified through simulation testing. Through the proposed control scheme, it is possible for the composite tiltrotor unmanned aerial vehicle to smoothly transition between multirotor and fixed-wing flight modes.