Modelling and design of flight control for quadcopter in ballistic airdrop mission under wind perturbation

Abstract

Airdrop mission are often carried for areas that are difficult to reach using land route and do not have the infrastructure for manned aircraft. The benefits of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for airdrop mission are getting much more attention with the rapid development of unmanned technology since last decade. The purpose of this paper is to develop a mathematical model of a quadcopter to carry out ballistic airdrop mission in a windy environment, modelled in the MATLAB/Simulink software. The quadcopter based on nonlinear dynamics model which is obtained by using Newton-Euler equation, equipped with sensor model, and free-fall payload model. The sensor consists of Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), barometer, and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Sensor fusion algorithm is developed to estimate attitude and position of quadcopter using Kalman filter, as well as to estimate the wind speed. A Proportional, Integral, and Derivative (PID) based controller is designed to obtain the attitude and position control of quadcopter using estimated state of quadcopter. Then, the quadcopter will carry out an airdrop mission by following a simple automated waypoint navigated system. The results of the ballistic airdrop show good precision and accuracy in a high speed, but emphasize the importance of validation model.