Identification of Attitude Flight Dynamics for An Unconventional UAV

The unconventional air frames used by many small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) pose difficulties in determining their dynamic models accurately. This is further complicated by the low Reynolds numbers flight regimes encountered by these aircraft. This paper studies the attitude flight dynamics identification of an unconventional model-scale UAV which has only two independently actuated elevon surfaces (no rudder or elevators). The study presents the first steps towards the development of autopilots for this kind of UAV. Utilizing the real-time flight data collected from a human-controlled test flight, the standard identification approaches were applied to obtain a MIMO linear model with given configuration deduced from a theoretical study. The simulation-based validation of a simplified model was undertaken which shows acceptable modelling accuracy. Further flight tests controlled by an autopilot tuned according to the model are currently being undertaken