Title: A comparison of longitudinal controllers for autonomous UAV

Authors: S. Yenal Vural; Chingiz Hajiyev

Addresses: Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey ' Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: This paper describes the design of an altitude control system for a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) using classical control methods, optimal control methods and fuzzy logic. A survey on recent research is made to develop a better UAV control system. A small radio control (RC) plane that is converted to a small UAV for testing purposes is used. The equations of motion of the UAV and state-space realisation of the system are included in the study. The longitudinal stability characteristic of the small UAV is analysed and classical control method using proportional-derivative (PD) controller, linear quadratic regulator (LQR) type optimal controller using different weight matrices and fuzzy logic controller are designed. The effectiveness of different control methods in this case is investigated and the results of the altitude control systems are compared.

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicles; UAVs; flight control systems; longitudinal motion; stability analysis; optimal control; fuzzy logic; fuzzy control; PD controllers; LQR optimal controllers; linear quadratic regulator; altitude control; pitch angle controllers; sustainable aviation; longitudinal controllers; controller design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSA.2014.062868

International Journal of Sustainable Aviation, 2014 Vol.1 No.1, pp.58 - 71

Received: 14 Feb 2013
Accepted: 08 Jun 2013
Published online: 19 Jul 2014 *

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