Following a predefined circle path is a common mission for a drone. We calculated the track angle of the circular path for a fixed-wing drone and designed a lateral control system to achieve a fixed-radius path following. We developed autopilot hardware and software to validate the flight control system using Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulations. For the flight control system, we calculated the sum of the track angle of the circular flight path and the output of the radius controller for lateral control, which can be used as the control command to ensure seamless tracking during loitering. The lateral control command independently manages the aileron and the rudder. Using a 32-bit multi-core autopilot and Ground Control Station (GCS) software equipped with previously validated HIL, we simulated and compared the results. Findings indicated that using ailerons alone resulted in a minimum loiter radius of 40 m and using only the rudder resulted in an 85-meter radius with safe flight.
Design and Simulation of Flight Control System for Fixed-Wing Drone Circling a Specific Point
2023-10-27
2285921 byte
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
NTRS | 1923
|TIBKAT | 1921
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1923
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