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System Identification of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Actuated Wingtips

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of symmetric and asymmetric wingtip actuation on the stability parameters of a small-scale fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle operating at a low Reynolds number (2.5 × 105). Advanced Aircraft Analysis and XFLR5 (vortex-lattice method) software are used to analytically and computationally estimate the effect of wingtip span on the stability parameters. X-Plane flight simulator is utilized to model the aircraft with actuated wingtips and to collect the simulation-based data for system identification. System identification is conducted using System IDentification Programs for AirCraft to derive the mathematical models. The effect on the longitudinal stability derivatives due to wingtip actuation is found to be negligible. A negative impact on static and dynamic stability derivatives in lateral direction due to wingtip actuation is not observed. Roll maneuverability performance is improved by asymmetric wingtip actuation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, 35899, USA

    Sai Basaveswara Rao, Arnab Chatterjee & Konstantinos Kanistras

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  1. Sai Basaveswara Rao
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  2. Arnab Chatterjee
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  3. Konstantinos Kanistras
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Sai Basaveswara Rao, Arnab Chatterjee and Konstantinos Kanistras. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Konstantinos Kanistras and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sai Basaveswara Rao.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article. No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

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Rao, S.B., Chatterjee, A. & Kanistras, K. System Identification of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Actuated Wingtips. J Intell Robot Syst 105, 11 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-022-01599-z

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