Development of MAV Control Algorithms using an Indoor Flight Test Facility

摘要

Micro Air Vehicles are small, low mass vehicles that may be used for unique intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. The concept of having a small vehicle operating in close proximity to a target means that it will likely operate in urban environments, below the roofline, and will fly at relatively slow speeds of a few meters per second or less. There is a need to characterize the dynamics of these vehicles in a controlled test environment and use the information to develop aircraft control algorithms. To meet this need the Air Force Research Lab has constructed the Micro Air Vehicle Integration and Application Research Institute (μA VIARI) Indoor Flight Test Laboratory. Flight testing of small aircraft is conducted in a test arena with a measurement volume of 20.8 m × 16.8 m × 7 m. Information on aircraft position, as well as pitch, roll, and yaw angles is acquired using a near real time, sixty camera videogrammetry system. This paper presents the results from a test program which determined transfer functions for a small, 0.21 N, fixed wing aircraft with a wingspan of 335mm. The transfer functions were utilized within mathematical models of control algorithms to determine appropriate gains for vehicle control Effective heading and altitude control of the aircraft were demonstrated using feedback from the videogrammetry system. Waypoint tracking was demonstrated using both fixed and virtual waypoints.