Design And Implementation Of Engine Control System For An Unmanned Ducted Aircraft

Engine is the power source of aircraft to generate thrust or lift. It is often likened to the heart ofaircraft. The engine control system controls the operation of engine system. Definitely, it is the brainof engine. The performance of the Engine control system directly determines the aircraft’s flightperformance. Taking an unmanned ducted aircraft as flying platform, this paper utilizes a small pistonengine to study the engine control system. The focus of this article is the constant speed control anddesign of the electronic controller of the engine.After completing the selection of the engine, this paper established the basic engine model, anddetermined the parameters of the model through the engine test on the ground. Then, thestep-optimized design method was adopted to design engine control law by combining the concept offuzzy control and anti-saturation with traditional PID control. As a result, we proposed a novelanti-windup fuzzy PID control algorithm. It can be confirmed that such algorithm plays a positive rolein improving the static and dynamic characteristics of the engine and also facilitating constant speedcontrol of engine better through Simulink simulation.Then, the electronic engine controller and ground control station were designed. We selectedSTM32F103VBT6to act as microcontroller, Hall magnetic sensor to measure engine speed, K-typethermocouple to measure the temperature of cylinder, serial port and CAN bus for data transmission,and completed the engine control procedures to finish the design of the electronic engine controller.The ground control station designed by C#can achieve many functions, such as monitoring enginecondition and saving data.Finally, the ground engine experiment and the ground tethered experiment were taken to test theengine control system designed in this paper. Engine transited between different working conditionssmoothly. For constant speed control, the controller can inhibit the speed error within2%and achievegood control performance. It verified that the engine control system is effective and reliable.