Hover, Transition, and Level Flight Control Design for a Single-Propeller Indoor Airplane

Abstract

This paper presents vehicle models and test flight results for an autonomous fixed-wing airplane that is designed to take-off, hover, transition to and from level-flight modes, and perch on a vertical landing platform in a highly space constrained environment. By enabling a fixed-wing UAV to achieve these feats, the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft in level flight are complimented by hover capabilities that were typically limited to rotorcraft. Flight and perch landing results are presented. This capability significantly eases support and maintenance of the vehicle. All of the flights presented in this paper are performed using the MIT Real-time Autonomous Vehicle indoor test ENvironment (RAVEN).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 14, 2007
Accession Number
ADA495926

Entities

People

  • Adrian Frank
  • Daniel S Levine
  • James Mcgrew
  • Jonathan How
  • Mario Valenti

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Airplanes
  • Control Surfaces
  • Control Systems
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Euler Angles
  • Fixed Wing Aircraft
  • Flight
  • Level Flight
  • Measurement
  • Propellers
  • Three Dimensional
  • Transitions
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Acoustics.
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development

Technology Areas

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