Design and Monte Carlo Analysis of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

In the last several years, software innovations and the increasing speed and availability of microcomputers and workstations have made the dynamic simulation of complex systems more practical. One such system, a short-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle called Bluebird, was previously modeled on Simulink, a commercial software package. The high fidelity model includes six degree of freedom nonlinear equations of motion with onboard sensors and a Global Positioning System and inertial navigation system. Because of interest expressed by the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Joint Program Office in how accurately a UAV could identify a target's geographical coordinates, the Bluebird model, with an added guidance and control system, was evaluated as to its navigational and attitudinal accuracy in a dynamic simulation using Monte Carlo techniques. Because of the modular nature of the simulation, future evaluations of manned or unmanned aircraft and avionics will involve relatively uncomplicated changes to the existing model.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA277648

Entities

People

  • Joseph P. Fordham

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Aircrafts
  • Birds
  • Closed Loop Systems
  • Computational Science
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Guidance
  • Inertial Navigation
  • Inertial Navigation Systems
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Navigation
  • Random Variables
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Robotics and Automation.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs
  • Space
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers