Transition Performance Evaluation of a VTOL Tilt-Wing UAV

A cost function to evaluate the transition performance of VTOL UAV is proposed. Based on transition performance analysis of different transition process, a cost function is constructed in consideration of the pitch angle tracking error, airspeed error and throttle command with different weight coefficient. The rationality of the cost function is validated by simulations with different influence factors. Both forward and backward transition simulation results show the cost function is reasonable. It is useful for transition performance evaluation, and it is helpful for transition strategy design to improve transition performance.