Title: A fixed wing UAV with VTOL capabilities: design, control and energy management

Authors: Luca Pugi; Alberto Mela; Alberto Reatti; Armando Casazza; Roberto Fiorenzani; Giuseppe Mattei

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, Florence, Italy ' Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, Florence, Italy ' Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence, Florence, Italy ' Sky Eye Systems S.r.l., Via Grecia, 52, 56021, Cascina, Italy ' Sky Eye Systems S.r.l., Via Grecia, 52, 56021, Cascina, Italy ' Sky Eye Systems S.r.l., Via Grecia, 52, 56021, Cascina, Italy

Abstract: There is an increasing interest for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with mixed, multi-rotor propulsion layouts able to assure desirable features of both fixed wing systems (efficiency high cruising speed autonomy) and capabilities of rotating wing ones (hovering, vertical take off and landing). In this work, it is investigated a mixed propulsion layout with five electric propellers fed by a hybrid energy management system able to assure an higher autonomy with respect to a pure electric solution. Proposed system is investigated through the development of a model able to properly simulate complex interactions arising between different propulsion, control and energy management subsystems. In this way it was possible to propose and calibrate an efficient energy management policy and to evaluate how different transition policies between hovering and fixed wing cruising should affect energy consumptions. Finally, proposed model was used to simulate a complex mission profile in order to verify both manoeuvring capabilities of the system and foreseen energy consumptions. At the end, it was possible to verify not only the feasibility of the proposed solution with respect to the completion of a complex mission profile but also potentialities and utility of adopted simulation models.

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicles; UAVs; vertical take off and landing; VTOL; hybrid propulsion systems; control: simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2022.127521

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2022 Vol.41 No.3, pp.206 - 221

Received: 19 Sep 2021
Accepted: 16 Dec 2021
Published online: 07 Dec 2022 *

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