Research on Control Law Design of Fixed Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in Aerobatic Maneuvers

This paper solves the flight control law design problem of a fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) in aerobatic maneuvers. First, a six degree-of-freedom nonlinear dynamic model was established as the research object. Then, based on the nonlinear dynamic inversion control approach, a height-flight path angle-velocity configuration, a pitch rate-roll rate-throttle control law and an angle of attack-roll rate-throttle configuration were proposed. The structures of flight control law were derived and the mathematical models were established. Then, the control inputs of each phase were calculated based on the kinematic characteristics of two selected maneuvers: S-turn and Split S maneuvers. At last, the complete closed-loop simulations were conducted and the results indicates that the proposed control law configurations as well as the maneuver analysis method were able to maintain the attitudes and trajectories accurately.