Am Cho

Wind Estimation and Airspeed Calibration using a UAV with a Single-Antenna GPS Receiver and Pitot Tube

This paper proposes a method that uses an aircraft with a single-antenna GPS receiver and Pitot tube to estimate wind speed and direction and to calibrate the airspeed. This sensor combination alone does not determine the true attitude of the aircraft, so the wind parameters cannot be obtained directly from the measurements. However, if the aircraft flies at different headings, such as in banking turns or circle maneuvers, the wind magnitude and direction can be estimated from the geometrical relation between the wind and the measurements. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) is applied to estimate wind parameters. The EKF can also estimate the scaling factor used to convert dynamic pressure to airspeed. This is useful for the operation of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) because of difficulty in determining the airspeed scaling factor of a low-cost UAV. Simulations are performed for a constant 2-D wind. To test the effectiveness of the proposed method, flight tests of a small UAV are conducted. Simulations and flight test results show that the proposed method is effective.

Fully automatic taxiing, takeoff and landing of a UAV using a single-antenna GPS receiver only

This paper presents automatic taxiing, takeoff and landing of a UAV based on a single-antenna GPS receiver. In this paper, inertial sensors such as gyros and accelerometers are not used at all to show the full potential of a single-antenna GPS receiver based attitude determination system. DGPS is implemented to give high accuracy position information for automatic taxiing, landing and takeoff on the runway. For a fixed wing aircraft, under the assumption of coordinated flight, the attitude information called as pseudo-attitudes can be estimated from the measurements of a single-antenna GPS receiver. So full state variables for the automatic control can be obtained from single-antenna GPS receiver. In addition to GPS receiver, only an airspeed sensor is added because the velocity relative to the air is very important during landing and takeoff. The forward velocity is replaced with the airspeed obtained from Pitot tube. From linearized equations of motions around the steady state, LQR controllers for takeoff and landing are built, m particular, the flare controller that controls the pitch, altitude and airspeed of a UAV is designed. During flight tests, the aircraft taxies and takes off the runway, follows the predefined waypoint path, and then lands on the runway along the curved approach path, all fully automatically. Based on flight test results, a single-antenna GPS receiver can be used as a main sensor for a backup or a low-cost control system of UAVs.

Integrated waypoint path generation and following of an unmanned aerial vehicle

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an efficient method to integrate path generation and following for an unmanned aerial vehicle.Design/methodology/approach – The shortest path is briefly reviewed using a straight line and a circular arc in a horizontal plane. Based on shortest paths, various path generation algorithms using oriented waypoints are described. Path design unit, which is structured concatenations of line segments and circular arcs, is proposed to represent different paths as one structure. Simple path following controller to follow a straight line and a circle was also implemented with linear‐quadratic regulator control laws. Some flight tests were conducted to verify the efficiency of proposed algorithm.Findings – Proposed method represents various paths between given waypoints efficiently by a small number of parameters. It does not need a large amount of memory storage and computation time to run in real time on a low‐cost microprocessor.Originality/value – This paper provi...

Airflow angle and wind estimation using GPS/INS navigation data and airspeed

The aircraft autopilot needs the feedback of airflow angles, that is, angle-of attack and sideslip angle to control the aircraft. The airflow angles measured by a mechanical vane are not accurate and very noisy for low airspeed. Moreover, the vane has a mechanical failure risk. This paper describes the extended Kalman filter based method to estimate the airflow angles and three-dimensional wind speed under constant wind condition. In addition, it can correct the scaling error of the airspeed of an aircraft. It uses the airspeed measurements, constant wind condition and the sideslip angle computed from GPS/INS navigation data and stability and control derivatives estimated from flight data. Simulation results show that the proposed method works well in various conditions. It is expected that estimated airflow angles will be able to replace the airflow angles measured by a primary system. Estimated wind speed can also be used to reconstruct the GPS/INS navigation system by correcting the airspeed in the case of GPS failure.

Envelop expansion flight test of flight control systems for TR-60 tilt-rotor UAV

Flight tests of TR-60 in order to evaluate the control performance in helicopter, conversion and airplane mode were completed. In order to reduce the development risk and schedule, single channel out of the dual flight control computer of Smart UAV (TR-100) was used without the other modification. Therefore the operational flight program (OFP) had the minimum changes only on control laws. Even though similar flight control system was applied to the scaled tilt-rotor aircraft, named as TR-60, many unexpected anomalies occurred during flight test from hover to airplane mode mainly due to the different bandwidth between TR-100 and TR-60. This paper presented the details of flight test data and anomalies which occurred during flight test of TR-60 as well as the trouble shooting results.

Sea Wave Modeling Analysis and Simulation for Shipboard Landing of Tilt Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

The mission of UAV has been expanded from a land to an ocean based on an enhancement of its technologies. Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) also tries to expand the mission of tilt rotor UAV to an ocean, in which the shipboard landing of UAV is required. However the environment of an oceanic operation is severer than that of land due to salty, fogy, and windy condition. The landing point for automatic landing is not fixed due to movement of shipboard in roll, pitch, and heave. It makes the oceanic operation and landing of UAV difficult. In order to conduct an oceanic operation of tilt rotor UAV, this paper presents that the sea wave modeling according to the sea state is conducted and the shipboard landing of tilt rotor UAV under the sea wave is tested and evaluated through the flight simulator for UAV.The mission of UAV has been expanded from a land to an ocean based on an enhancement of its technologies. Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) also tries to expand the mission of tilt rotor UAV to an ocean, in which the shipboard landing of UAV is required. However the environment of an oceanic operation is severer than that of land due to salty, fogy, and windy condition. The landing point for automatic landing is not fixed due to movement of shipboard in roll, pitch, and heave. It makes the oceanic operation and landing of UAV difficult. In order to conduct an oceanic operation of tilt rotor UAV, this paper presents that the sea wave modeling according to the sea state is conducted and the shipboard landing of tilt rotor UAV under the sea wave is tested and evaluated through the flight simulator for UAV.

Sea wave modeling and shipboard landing simulation of tilt rotor unmanned aerial vehicle

Shipboard landing of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft is an important consideration to operate aircraft in the ocean. The oceanic operation of aircraft has more difficult environment than the one on the ground due to salty, fogy, and windy condition. Especially the gust and the vortex around the structures on the ship make the approach of aircraft difficult. The movement of ship board in roll, pitch, and heave by wind and sea wave also makes the landing of aircraft severe. Tilt rotor UAV developed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) basically aimed to be operated on the ground and to be expanded to an oceanic operation. The simulation environment of UAV to evaluate a various flight condition also considers to be applied to the oceanic operation. In this paper, the sea state conditions according to amplitude of sea wave and wind velocity was investigated and the mathematical description of sea state through sea wave modeling was conducted. In the condition of each sea state modeled with sea wave and wind, the shipboard landing of tilt rotor UAV was evaluated in simulation environment.

Development of Flight Control System and Troubleshooting on Flight Test of a Tilt-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

The full results of troubleshooting process related to the flight control system of a tilt-rotor type UAV in the flight tests are described. Flight tests were conducted in helicopter, conversion, and airplane modes. The vehicle was flown using automatic functions, which include speed-hold, altitude-hold, heading-hold, guidance modes, as well as automatic take-off and landing. Many unexpected problems occurred during the envelope expansion tests which were mostly under those automatic functions. The anomalies in helicopter mode include vortex ring state (VRS), long delay in the automatic take-off, and the initial overshoot in the automatic landing. In contrast, the anomalies in conversion mode are untrimmed AOS oscillation and the calibration errors of the air data sensors. The problems of low damping in rotor speed and roll rate responses are found in airplane mode. Once all of the known problems had been solved, the vehicle in airplane mode gradually reached the maximum design speed of 440km/h at the operation altitude of 3km. This paper also presents a comprehensive detailing of the control systems of the Tilt-rotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV).

Control Law Design for a Tilt-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with a Nacelle Mounted WE (Wing Extension)

The results of control law design for a tilt-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle that has a nacelle mounted wing extension (WE) are presented in this paper. It consists of a control surface mixer, stability and control augmentation system (SCAS), hold mode for altitude / speed / heading, and a guidance mode for preprogram and point navigation which includes automatic take-off and landing. The conversion corridor and the control moments derivatives between the original tilt-rotor and its variant of the nacelle mounted WE were compared to show the effectiveness of the WE. The nacelle conversion of the original tilt-rotor starts when the airspeed is greater than 30 km/h but its WE variant starts at 0 km/h in order to reduce the drag caused by the high incidence angle of the WE. The stability margins of the inner loop are presented with the optimization approach. The outer loops for the hold mode are designed with trial and error methods with linear and nonlinear simulation. The main control parameter for altitude control of the helicopter mode is thrust command and it is transferred to the pitch attitude command in airplane mode. Otherwise, the control parameter for the speed of the helicopter mode is the pitch attitude command and it is transferred to the thrust command in airplane mode. Therefore the speed and altitude hold mode are coupled to each other and are engaged at the same time when an internal pilot engages any of the altitude or speed hold modes. The nonlinear simulation results of the guidance control for the preprogrammed mode and point navigation are also presented including automatic take-off and landing in order to prove the full control law.The results of control law design for a tilt-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle that has a nacelle mounted wing extension (WE) are presented in this paper. It consists of a control surface mixer, stability and control augmentation system (SCAS), hold mode for altitude / speed / heading, and a guidance mode for preprogram and point navigation which includes automatic take-off and landing. The conversion corridor and the control moments derivatives between the original tilt-rotor and its variant of the nacelle mounted WE were compared to show the effectiveness of the WE. The nacelle conversion of the original tilt-rotor starts when the airspeed is greater than 30 km/h but its WE variant starts at 0 km/h in order to reduce the drag caused by the high incidence angle of the WE. The stability margins of the inner loop are presented with the optimization approach. The outer loops for the hold mode are designed with trial and error methods with linear and nonlinear simulation. The main control parameter for altitude control of the helicopter mode is thrust command and it is transferred to the pitch attitude command in airplane mode. Otherwise, the control parameter for the speed of the helicopter mode is the pitch attitude command and it is transferred to the thrust command in airplane mode. Therefore the speed and altitude hold mode are coupled to each other and are engaged at the same time when an internal pilot engages any of the altitude or speed hold modes. The nonlinear simulation results of the guidance control for the preprogrammed mode and point navigation are also presented including automatic take-off and landing in order to prove the full control law.

Development of Operational Flight Program for Smart UAV

The operational flight program(OFP) which has the functions of I/O processing with avionics, flight control logic calculation, fault diagnosis and redundancy mode is embedded in the flight control computer of Smart UAV. The OFP was developed in the environment of PowerPC 755 processor and VxWorks 5.5 real-time operating system. The OFP consists of memory access module, device I/O signal processing module and flight control logic module, and each module was designed to hierarchical structure. Memory access and signal processing modules were verified from bench test, and flight control logic module was verified from hardware-in-the-loop simulation(HILS) test, ground integration test, tethered test and flight test. This paper describes development environment, software structure, verification and management method of the OFP.