Abstract
Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicles UAV are vehicles capable of take-off and landing vertically like helicopters while maintaining the long-range efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft. Unfortunately, due to their wing area, these vehicles are sensitive to wind gusts when hovering. One way to increase the hovering wind-rejection capabilities of hybrid UAV is through the addition of extra actuators capable of directing the thrust of the rotors. Nevertheless, the ability to control UAVs with many actuators is strictly related to how well the Control Allocation problem is solved. Generally, to reduce the problem complexity, conventional (CA) methods make use of linearized control effectiveness in order to optimize the inputs that achieve a certain control objective. We show that this simplification can lead to oscillations if it is applied to thrust vectoring vehicles, with pronounced non-linear actuator effectiveness. When large control objectives are requested or actuators saturate, the linearized effectiveness based CA methods tend to compute a solution far away from the initial actuator state, invalidating the linearization. A potential solution could be to impose limits on the solution domain of the linearized CA algorithm. However, this solution only reduces the oscillations at the expense of a lag in the vehicle acceleration response. To overcome this limitation, we present a fully nonlinear CA method, which uses an Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) algorithm to solve the CA problem. The method is tested and implemented on a single board computer that computes the actuator solution in real time onboard a dual axis tilting rotor quad-plane. Flight test experiments confirm the problem of severe oscillations in the linearized effectiveness CA algorithms and show how the only algorithm able to optimally solve the CA problem is the presented Nonlinear method.
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Data Availability
the datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The work was carried out within the Unmanned Valley Project. The authors would like to thank the “Europees Fonds voor Regionale Ontwikkeling(EFRO)" who is founding the Unmanned Valley project under grant code KvW-00168 for the South-Holland region.
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all authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Alessandro Mancinelli. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Alessandro Mancinelli and Ewoud J.J. Smeur and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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the work does not require ethics approval since it does not involve human or animal subjects.
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authors Bart D.W. Remes, Guido C.H.E. De Croon and Ewoud J.J. Smeur declare they have no financial interests. Author Alessandro Mancinelli has received financial support under the form of PhD grant by the "Europees Fonds voor Regionale Ontwikkeling(EFRO)" with grant code KvW-00168.
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Appendices
List of Acronyms
- CA :
-
Control Allocation
- VTOL :
-
Vertical Takeoff and Landing
- SBC :
-
Single Board Computer
- SQP :
-
Sequential Quadratic Programming
- EOM :
-
Equations Of Motion
- INDI :
-
Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion
- FCB :
-
Flight Control Board
- PIU :
-
Pseudo Inverse Unconstrained
- WLS :
-
Weighted Least Squares
- CG :
-
Center of Gravity
- INS :
-
Inertial Navigation System
- UAV :
-
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
- IMU :
-
Inertial Measurement Unit
- DOF :
-
Degrees Of Freedom
Appendix: Mathematical model of the dual-axis tilting rotor quad-plane
In this section, we will report the EOM derivation for the dual-axis tilting rotor quad-plane as described in our previous paper [1].
1.1 A.1 Reference Frames and Notation
Firstly, the rotor disposition and spinning direction have to be characterized. In Fig. 3, a scheme containing the rotor disposition and the motors spinning direction is shown.
Secondly, it is important to define the different reference frames used for the characterization of the vehicle dynamics:
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Earth Frame \(\Gamma _e\) : Origin on the Earth surface, \(x_e\) aligned with Earth north, \(y_e\) axis aligned with Earth east and \(z_e\) axis pointing towards the center of Earth.
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Body Frame \(\Gamma _b\) : Origin in the airplane CG, \(x_b\) axis in the vehicle plane of symmetry and pointing to the nose, \(z_b\) axis in the vehicle plane of symmetry and perpendicular to \(x_b\), \(y_b\) axis perpendicular to \(x_b\) and \(z_b\), pointing to the right wing.
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Propeller Frame \(\Gamma _p^i\) : Origin in the center of rotation of the \(i-th\) rotor, axis direction aligned with the body frame \(\Gamma _b\) when the tilting angles \(g_i\) and \(b_i\) are zero.
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Wind Frame \(\Gamma _w\): Origin in the airplane CG, \(x_w\) axis in the vehicle plane of symmetry pointing in the wind speed direction, \(z_w\) in the vehicle plane of symmetry and perpendicular to \(x_w\), \(y_w\) perpendicular to \(x_w\) and \(z_w\), pointing to the right wing.
An overview of the Earth, Body and Propeller frames and the identification of the rotor tilting angles is shown in Fig. 4.
The transformation matrices for the projection of a vector from one reference frame to another can be identified as follows:
For the coordinate transformation between the body reference frame \(\Gamma _b\) to earth reference frame \(\Gamma _e\) the following matrix is used:
where c and s represent the abbreviation respectively of the cosine and sine function, while \(\phi \), \(\theta \) and \(\psi \) are the Euler angles in the traditional ZYX order.
For the coordinate transformation between the propeller frame \(\Gamma _p\) to body reference frame \(\Gamma _b\) the following matrix is used:
where the angles \(b_i\) and \(g_i\) are the i-th rotor tilting angles. Conventionally, within the paper we will refer to \(b_i\) as elevation tilting angle and to \(g_i\) as azimuth tilting angle. For a visual representation of the tilting angles, the reader can refer to Fig. 4.
Concerning the coordinate transformation between the wind frame \(\Gamma _w\) and the body frame \(\Gamma _b\), the following matrix is used:
where \(\alpha \) is the angle of attack and \(\beta \) is the sideslip angle.
Finally, we define the matrix T used to obtain the rate of change of the Euler angles from the body rates \(\omega \):
where \(\Theta \) represents the Euler angle vector composed by \(\phi \), \(\theta \) and \(\psi \).
1.2 A.2 Assumptions
In order to facilitate the EOM derivation, a few assumptions are made:
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Inflow into the propeller is assumed not to influence it’s performance.
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The thrust generated by the rotor is always perpendicular to the propeller disk and it is applied in the center of the propeller disk.
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The change in the body inertia due to the rotor tilting is negligible and \(x_b\), \(y_b\) and \(z_b\) are vehicle principal axes.
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\(x_p\), \(y_p\) and \(z_p\) are principal axes for the propeller, and the inertia terms \(I^p_{xx}\) and \(I^p_{yy}\) are negligible.
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The inertia tensor of the tilting mechanism in the propeller reference frame \(\Gamma _p\) is a diagonal matrix.
1.3 A.3 Equations Of Motion Derivation
With the reference frames and assumptions defined, it is possible to analyze all the forces and moments contributing to the system dynamics for the development of the EOM:
where \(\ddot{P_e}\) are the linear acceleration in the earth reference frame and \(\dot{\omega }\) represent the body rates derivative.
Each term of Eq. 30 refers to a specific contribution asollows:
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\(F^p : \) Forces produced by the propeller thrust rotated to the earth frame:
$$\begin{aligned} F^p = \sum \limits _{i=1}^{N} R_{eb} R_{bp}^i \left( \begin{array}{cccc} 0 \\ 0 \\ - K_p^T \Omega _i^2 \end{array} \right) , \end{aligned}$$(31)where \(K_p^T\) is the thrust coefficient of the motor and \(\Omega _i\) is the rotational speed of the i-th motor.
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\(F^a : \) Aerodynamic forces produced by the vehicle in the earth frame:
$$\begin{aligned} F^a = R_{eb} R_{bw} \left( \begin{array}{ll} -D^{wb} \\ Y^{wb} \\ -L^{wb} \end{array} \right) , \end{aligned}$$(32)where \(D_{wb}\), \(Y_{wb}\) and \(L_{wb}\) are the aerodynamics forces acting on the vehicle and can be expressed as follows [22]:
$$\begin{aligned} \left( \begin{array}{ll} D^{wb} \\ Y^{wb} \\ L^{wb} \end{array} \right)= & {} Q \left( \begin{array}{ll} C_{D0} + k_{cd} (C_{L0} + C_{L\alpha }\alpha )^2 \\ C_{Y\beta } \beta \\ C_{L0} + C_{L \alpha } \alpha \end{array}\right) , \nonumber \\{} & {} \quad \quad Q = \frac{1}{2}\rho S V_{tot}^2 \end{aligned}$$(33)where \(\rho \) is the air density, S is the wing surface and \(V_{tot}\) is the airspeed.
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\(M^a : \) Aerodynamic moments acting on the vehicle in the body reference frame:
$$\begin{aligned}&\hspace{1.5cm}M^a = \left( \begin{array}{lll} M_L^a \\ M_M^a \\ M_N^a \end{array} \right) = \nonumber \\ = \;&Q\left( \begin{array}{lll} \bar{b}(C_{l0} + C_{l\beta }\beta +\frac{\bar{b}}{2V_{tot}}(C_{lp}p + C_{lr}r)) \\ \bar{c}(C_{m0}+C_{m\alpha }\alpha )\\ \bar{b}(C_{np}\frac{\bar{b}}{2V{tot}}p + C_{nr}\frac{\bar{b}}{2V_{tot}}r) \end{array} \right) , \end{aligned}$$(34)where \(M_L^a, M_M^a\) and \(M_N^a\) represent respectively the aerodynamic roll, pitch and yaw moment acting on the vehicle. The coefficients present in the second term of Eq. 34 and in the first term of Eq. 33 can be identified through test flights, CFD analysis or geometrical vehicle properties [23]. Within this paper, we will employ the aerodynamic coefficients identified in [1].
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\(M^t : \) Torque generated by the rotors due to the propeller thrust:
$$\begin{aligned} M^t = \sum \limits _{i=1}^{N} \left( R_{bp}^i \cdot \left[ \begin{array}{ll} 0 \\ 0\\ - K_p^T \Omega _i^2 \end{array} \right] \right) \times \left( \begin{array}{lll} l_x^i&l_y^i&l_z^i \end{array}\right) , \end{aligned}$$(35)where \((l_x^i,l_y^i,l_z^i)\) are the coordinates of the i-th rotor in the body reference frame.
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\(M^d : \) Torque generated by the rotors due to the propeller drag:
$$\begin{aligned} M^d = \sum \limits _{i=1}^{N} - R_{bp}^i \left( \begin{array}{ll} 0 \\ 0\\ K_p^M \Omega _i^2 \end{array} \right) (-1)^i, \end{aligned}$$(36)where \(K_p^M\) is the torque coefficient of the motor and can be identified as previously described for \(K_p^T\).
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\(M^i : \) Torque generated by the propeller inertia due to the rotational rate change:
$$\begin{aligned} M^i = \sum \limits _{i=1}^{N} - J_p R_{bp}^i \left( \begin{array}{ll} 0 \\ 0\\ \dot{\Omega _i} \end{array} \right) (-1)^i, \end{aligned}$$(37)where \(J_p\) is the propeller inertia.
-
\(M^p : \) Torque generated by the rotor precession term due to the tilting rotation:
$$\begin{aligned} M^p = \sum \limits _{i=1}^{N} R_{bp}^i \left( \begin{array}{cc} 0 \\ 0 \\ J_p \Omega _i \end{array} \right) \times \left( \begin{array}{cc} \dot{g_i} \\ \dot{b_i} \\ 0 \end{array} \right) (-1)^i. \end{aligned}$$(38) -
\(M^{tilt} : \) Torque generated by the rotor inertial term due to the tilting rotation:
$$\begin{aligned} M^{tilt} = \sum \limits _{i=1}^{N} R_{bp}^i \left( \begin{array}{cc} \ddot{g_i} I_{{xx}_i}^{tilt}\\ \ddot{b_i} I_{{yy}_i}^{tilt}\\ 0 \end{array} \right) (-1)^i, \end{aligned}$$(39)where \(I_{{xx}_i}^{tilt}\) and \(I_{{yy}_i}^{tilt}\) are the i-th rotor tilting inertia in the propeller reference frame.
-
\(M^r : \) Inertial term of the rotor due to the vehicle rates
$$\begin{aligned} M^r = \sum \limits _{i=1}^{N} - \omega \times \left( R_{bp}^i \left( \begin{array}{ll} 0 \\ 0 \\ J_p \Omega _i \end{array} \right) (-1)^i \right) . \end{aligned}$$(40)
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Mancinelli, A., Remes, B.D.W., De Croon, G.C.H.E. et al. Real-Time Nonlinear Control Allocation Framework for Vehicles with Highly Nonlinear Effectors Subject to Saturation. J Intell Robot Syst 108, 67 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-023-01865-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-023-01865-8