A low-cost, minimum complexity altitude/heading hold flight control system [unmanned vehicles]

For many one-way unmanned aerial vehicle payload delivery and remote sensing missions, the heading to the target location and local winds are known. For these missions, only altitude and heading hold features are needed. Further, because the vehicle will not be returning, minimizing cost is a priority. Due to the desire to reduce the physical size of the vehicle itself, the flight control system needs to be of minimal complexity to facilitate miniaturization. Presented is a prototype altitude/heading hold flight control system that has been developed for use in small, stable UAV platforms. Topics covered in this paper include system architecture, hardware, user interface, and preliminary test-flight results. A brief description of the miniature target aircraft, the Naval Research Laboratory's micro tactical expendable (MITE), is presented as a representation of the class of vehicle under consideration.