Design and Implementation of a Hybrid UAV With Model-Based Flight Capabilities

Hybrid UAV is an attractive design concept in the last decade for its superiority in combining vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and cruise flight capabilities. In this paper, we present a systematic design methodology from bottom up for an innovative tail-sitter UAV platform, named J-Lion. Implementation details are included with all design considerations and tradeoffs. All subsystem dynamics is investigated to constitute the dynamics model with a unified form for full envelope. Model-based VTOL and full envelope flights are realized with the obtained dynamics model and sophisticated flight control techniques. Experiment results successfully prove the effectiveness of our design concept and methodology.