Agile flight control techniques for a fixed-wing aircraft

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2009.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sobolic, Frantisek Michal
Other Authors: Jonathan P. How.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51640
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author Sobolic, Frantisek Michal
author2 Jonathan P. How.
author_facet Jonathan P. How.
Sobolic, Frantisek Michal
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description Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2009.
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spelling mit-1721.1/516402019-04-10T09:10:29Z Agile flight control techniques for a fixed-wing aircraft Sobolic, Frantisek Michal Jonathan P. How. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Aeronautics and Astronautics. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-94). As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) become more involved in challenging mission objectives, the need for agility controlled flight becomes more of a necessity. The ability to navigate through constrained environments as well as quickly maneuver to each mission target is essential. Currently, individual vehicles are developed with a particular mission objective, whether it be persistent surveillance or fly-by reconnaissance. Fixed-wing vehicles with a high thrust-to-weight ratio are capable of performing maneuvers such as take-off or perch style landing and switch between hover and conventional flight modes. Agile flight controllers enable a single vehicle to achieve multiple mission objectives. By utilizing the knowledge of the flight dynamics through all flight regimes, nonlinear controllers can be developed that control the aircraft in a single design. This thesis develops a full six-degree-of-freedom model for a fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft along with methods of control through non conventional flight regimes. In particular, these controllers focus on transitioning into and out of hover to level flight modes. This maneuver poses hardships for conventional linear control architectures because these flights involve regions of the post-stall regime, which is highly nonlinear due to separation of flow over the lifting surfaces. Using Lyapunov back stepping control stability theory as well as quaternion-based control methods, control strategies are developed that stabilize the aircraft through these flight regimes without the need to switch control schemes. The effectiveness of each control strategy is demonstrated in both simulation and flight experiments. by Frantisek Michal Sobolic. S.M. 2010-02-09T16:55:20Z 2010-02-09T16:55:20Z 2009 2009 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51640 496316922 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 94 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Sobolic, Frantisek Michal
Agile flight control techniques for a fixed-wing aircraft
title Agile flight control techniques for a fixed-wing aircraft
title_full Agile flight control techniques for a fixed-wing aircraft
title_fullStr Agile flight control techniques for a fixed-wing aircraft
title_full_unstemmed Agile flight control techniques for a fixed-wing aircraft
title_short Agile flight control techniques for a fixed-wing aircraft
title_sort agile flight control techniques for a fixed wing aircraft
topic Aeronautics and Astronautics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51640
work_keys_str_mv AT sobolicfrantisekmichal agileflightcontroltechniquesforafixedwingaircraft