Flight Control System Design And Software Development For High Velocity UAV

With extension of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) application, higher capability of UAV has been requested in both military and civil fields. High velocity UAV technology has been promoted because of the development and use of near space. Control and guidance technology which is one of the key technologies for high-velocity UAV development is attracting more attention in all countries.Compared with the low UAV, high velocity UAV is of high dynamic characteristics and with the problems of structure, aerodynamic coupling and wide range of parameter changes due to the high dynamic characteristics. In addition, UAV flight dynamics equations have the characteristics of high non-linearity and strong coupling. These issues make it more difficult to perform the flight control system design.In order to complete the design and simulation of high velocity UAV flight control system, nonlinear six-degrees-of-freedom coupling kinetic equation is established. Its properties including aerodynamic characteristics, stability and maneuverability are analyzed. In attitude control system design for UAV research, the complicated attitude dynamic model is decoupled into three single-input single-output channels by input-output feedback linearization. Secondly, each channel attitude control law was designed, which was based on model reference adaptive control method(MRAC). Where, the reference models are determined respectively according to the performance indexes of each channel and the second-order model was chosen. In order to demonstrate the performance of attitude control system, the proportional-integral-derivative(PID) control law was used. By comparing the two ways, the system performance indexes by MRAC are better than those by PID. In guidance control system design for UAV research, we conducted the flight track planning according to the task. Then track the predetermined path though controlling the trajectory inclination angle.Based on the above study, one set software for control system design is developed and the same can be used to realize the functions from formation of dynamics model, aerodynamic characteristics analysis to gesture control system design, guidance system design and six-degrees-of-freedom simulation. It provides the engineer with a wonderful tool for the design of control system for unmanned aerial vehicle.