DEVELOPMENT OF AN UNCONVENTIONAL AIRCRAFT WITH BOTH VTOL AND CRUISE FLIGHT CAPABILITIES

Abstract

A hybrid UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) with both VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) and cruise flight capabilities has gained tremendous interest from industry and academia as an unconventional design concept, and it enables mission scenarios with constrained take-off/landing facilities, high maneuverability and long flight range requirements. This thesis studies a systematic design methodology from bottom up for tail-sitter hybrid UAV platforms. Implementation details are presented with holistic design considerations and trade-offs. All subsystem dynamics is investigated to constitute the dynamics model with a unified form for full envelope, which forms the core of our full envelope simulation environment. Model-based autonomous full envelope flight is achieved with the obtained dynamics model and sophisticated flight control techniques, hence proves the effectiveness of the proposed design concept and methodology.