Modeling and Control of a Tethered Rotorcraft
Abstract
A tethered rotorcraft model is developed using a computationally efficient recursive tether model. The recursive rigid-body tether model results in unconstrained ordinary differential equations and maintains much of the simplicity of simple lumped mass tether models while avoiding numerical difficulties associated with using many stiff elastic elements with low mass. Further efficiency is achieved by treating each tether link as a body of revolution and assuming that tether spin is negligible to the dynamics. The tether is attached to a 6 degree of freedom rotorcraft model using a single visco-elastic element. The final recursive tether-rotorcraft model is well suited for a variety of trade studies required for design and analysis of such systems due to its low computational cost and numerical robustness. Simulations are used to show how the proposed recursive model can be used to investigate the dynamic response and tether loads for a small 3 kg tethered rotorcraft.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 30, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA534899
Entities
People
- Nathan Slegers
Organizations
- University of Alabama in Huntsville