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UAV AutoPilot PDF
UAV AutoPilot PDF
Session S2H
Basically,
this
test
platform
employs
the
Matlab/Simulink to run the autopilot controller to be tested,
the flight simulator X-Plane with the aircraft to be
commanded, a microcontroller to command model aircraft
flight control surfaces and a servo to drive these control
surfaces. All this resources are interconnected through data
buses in order to exchange information.
As study case, this article presents the results obtained
from tests conducted over an autopilot control system
designed for lateral movement, specifically for roll mode
control. This system was conceived for Boeing 747-400
aircraft.
AIRCRAFT TRANSLATIONAL MOTIONS
An airplane in free flight has three translational motions
(vertical, horizontal and transverse), three rotational motions
(pitch, yaw and roll) and numerous elastic degrees of
freedom.
In order to reduce the complexity of this mathematical
modeling problem, some simplifying assumptions may be
applied. First, it is assumed that the aircraft motion consists
of small deviations from its equilibrium flight condition.
Second, it is assumed that the motion of the airplane can be
analyzed by separating the equations into two groups [1]:
Longitudinal Equations: composed by X-force, Z-force
and pitching moment equations,
Lateral Equations: composed by Y-force and yawing
and rolling moments equations.
Figure 1 shows the above mentioned aircraft reference
axes, forces and moments.
Actuator
Ka
Aircraft
Dynamics
KRG
FIGURE 2
A ROLL ATTITUDE AUTOPILOT SYSTEM
e
-
Ka
ea
ea
-
Aileron
Servo
Roll
Dynamics
1/s
Rate Gyro
KRG
Gyro
KG
FIGURE 3
ROLL ATTITUDE AUTOPILOT SYSTEM
FIGURE 1
AIRCRAFT AXES, FORCES AND MOMENTS
I. Lateral-directional motion
The lateral-directional motion of an aircraft disturbed from
its equilibrium state is a combination of rolling, yawing and
sideslipping motions. This interaction between roll and yaw
produces a coupled motion [1].
The lateral-directional motion, specifically the roll
motion, is the movement intended to be simulated on the
proposed test platform as demonstration example. To
simplify the studied case, it was chosen to address
specifically the roll motion in this work. Even though this
simplifies the dynamic model equations, the platform
functionality and characteristics are very well demonstrated.
Session S2H
error
-
A
Controller
UDP
commands
B
Aircraft
Dynamics
output
UDP
C
RS232
Microcontroller
PWM
D
Flight Control Surfaces
Servo
Matlab / Simulink
FIGURE 4
TEST PLATFORM BLOCK DIAGRAM
FIGURE 5
MICROCONTROLLER UNIT
Session S2H
device is justified by its high processing capability as well as
easy integration with digital servos through PWM I/O ports.
On block D of Figure 4 it is represented the digital servo
that commands model aircraft flight control surfaces. A
typical servo is shown in Figure 6.
FIGURE 6
MODEL AIRCRAFT DIGITAL SERVO
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
38
39
40
41
Bytes
L1 L2 L3 L4 B11 B12 B13 B14 B21 B22 B23 B24 ... B81 B82 B83 B84
FIGURE 8
X-PLANE DATA PACKAGE PATTERN
Session S2H
So, the Matlab/Simulink model has to decode this data
packet accordingly. It also has to properly encode the data to
be sent to X-Plane. Most of the blocks of the test platform
implemented on Matlab/Simulink environment are dedicated
to decode and encode data packets from and to X-Plane.
IMPLEMENTATION
Aileron Servo:
S (s) =
10
s + 10
(2 )
X-Plane
running Boeing 747-400
Matlab
ref
X-Plane
UDP Protocol
e
-
45.2
ea
ea
-
Aileron
Servo
Roll
Dynamics
1/s
Ka
22.2
KRG
1
KG
Microcontroller
MSP430
Commands
Interface
Matlab/Simulink
PWM
FIGURE 10
ROLL ATTITUDE AUTOPILOT SYSTEM FOR BOEING 747-700
FIGURE 9
AUTOPILOT TEST PLATFORM IMPLEMENTATION
(1)
FIGURE 11
AUTOPILOT TEST PLATFORM MODEL AT MATLAB/SIMULINK
Session S2H
To initialize the simulation, X-Plane is loaded with
aircraft Boeing 747-400 in a cruise flight at 40,000 ft
altitude. As soon as the test platform model shown on Figure
11 runs, the designed autopilot system takes the aircraft
control. In principle, for any roll angle applied as reference
into the autopilot system, the aircraft at X-Plane shall
respond following that reference.
The reference signals applied as system input, the
system response and also the commands sent to the aircraft
flight control surfaces actuators can be monitored through
real time graphs at Matlab/Simulink. In the proposed study
case, the input is the reference roll angle, the system
response is the new aircraft roll angle attitude and the
commands are the deflections to be imposed to the ailerons.
Figure 12 shows the results for the proposed roll attitude
autopilot system implemented at the test platform.
FIGURE 12
ROLL REFERENCE AND RESPONSE AND AILERON COMMANDS
[1]
NELSON, R. C. Flight Stability and Automatic Control McGrawHill Second Edition, 1998
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]