Evolution of the Flight Testing Program at West Virginia University in Support of Flight Control Research

摘要

This paper describes the overall design, development, and flight testing of small UnmannedAerial Vehicles (UAVs) at the Flight Control Systems Laboratory (FCSL) at West VirginiaUniversity (WVU) that have been used in several research projects over the last 15 years.Flight control research at the WVU FCSL has covered a wide range of topics, including theidentification of the aerodynamic parameters of a small UAV from flight data, sensor andactuator fault tolerant flight control systems; Global Positioning System based 3-aircraftformation flight, remote sensing, and a number of topics within Aviation Safety research.Several aerial platforms have been designed, manufactured, instrumented, and flight testedin supporting the aforementioned research projects. To date, a total of 9 different aircraftplatforms and customized onboard avionics payload have been developed and used for flighttesting - including 8 fixed wing platforms and 1 rotary wing platform. This paper providesan historical view of the experience in the development of infrastructure for the fabricationof the airframes, as well as the evolution of the onboard avionics, the supporting softwareenvironment, and the flight testing procedures. Few selected results from the formationflight experiments, aircraft parameter identification process are also presented.