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On-ground lateral direction control for an unswept flying-wing UAV

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2019

Z. Y. Ma Open the ORCID record for Z. Y. Ma [Opens in a new window] ,
X. P. Zhu  and
Z. Zhou
Z. Y. Ma
Affiliation:
School of Astronautics, Science and Technology on UAV Laboratory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
X. P. Zhu
Affiliation:
Science and Technology on UAV Laboratory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
Z. Zhou*
Affiliation:
School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
*
*[email protected]
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Abstract

To solve the on-ground lateral direction control problem of the unswept flying-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) without rudder, steering system or breaking system, a control approach which uses differential propeller thrust to control the lateral direction is proposed. First, a mathematical model of the unswept flying-wing UAV on-ground moving is established. Second, based on the active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) theory, a yaw angle controller is designed by using the differential propeller thrust as the control output. Finally, a straight line trajectory tracking control law is designed by improving the vector field path following method. Experiment results show that the proposed control laws have a shorter response time, better robustness and better control precision compared with proportional integral derivative (PID) controller. The proposed controller has small computational complexity, simple parameter setting process, and uses practical measurable physical quantities, providing a reference solution for further engineering applications.

Keywords

Unswept flying-wing unmanned aerial vehicleOn-ground controlActive disturbance rejection controlVector field path followingDifferential propeller thrust
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 123 , Issue 1261 , March 2019 , pp. 416 - 432
Copyright
© Royal Aeronautical Society 2019 

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