Hybrid Fixed/Rotary Wing

Towards a new generation of UAVs

27 Sep 2019 Theme: 3

Rajesh Kakkar | Naivedhya Suryawanshi
1Global Strategic Technologies Ltd, J.K Organisation, INDIA

Prof. Jyoti Prakash Naidu | Gustavo Sanchez

2JK Lakshmipat University, INDIA
 Hybrid UAV – Advantages

Fixed Wing (FW) UAV Vertical Take-off & Landing

• Aerofoil gliding by wings (VTOL)
gives higher speeds
• Rotor blades are the wings
• Long range and endurance on continuously moving, lower
less power speeds
• Higher MTOW/ Payload • Comparatively short range
• Needs runway or launcher for and endurance than FW
take-off • Launch and land in a compact
• Needs runway or recovery area
assistance for landing • Hover and agility possible
• Need forward motion to have • Movements controlled by
air over wings thrust and torque giving
rotational and lateral
displacement

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 Hybrid UAV – Key Design Imperatives
Factors Design Parameters
• Launch/ Landing/ Cruising Speed • Platform Design
• Flexibility/ Hover/ Perch • Flight Modelling
• Payload/ Weight • Control Techniques
• Endurance/ Altitude • Power Source
• Telemetry/ Data Communication • Navigation/ BVLoS
• Expandable/ Recoverable • Robustness

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Hybrid UAS – Design Approach

Platform Design

Dynamics Modeling Control Techniques

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 Platform Design – Convertible Planes

Tilt Rotor Tilt Wing

Rotary Wing Dual-System

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 Convertible Hybrid UAV
Type Pros Cons

Tilt Rotor Controllability and stability in vertical flight. Tri- Lower aspect ratio and thicker aerofoil causes poor
copter most favoured design and flying wing aerodynamic performance
configuration in twin rotor
Shafts required to rotate only rotors instead of Wings generate poor lift force and is made good by
wings saving power and weight rudder support or tri-motor for transition

Tilt Wing Single wing and tandem wing both experimented Needs conventional FW design. More actuators
weight. Sudden change in ‘a’ (AOA) cannot be
countered by control surface or differential thrust

Possibility of more design configuration for wing During take-off and landing the upwards wing
geometry makes flight vulnerable in crosswinds
Enhances aerodynamic performance in level flight Thus required complex controls and higher power
to maintain stability
Rotor-wing All experimental works close to helicopter. A body No practical design success due to lack of full flight
tilt during transition experimented. envelope test. May see things coming in future.

Dual-system Simple design with separate multi-rotor for vertical For slow transition and non-racing horizontal flight.
and a propeller for level flight
Relatively simple because the flight modes are The multi-rotor are dead weight during horizontal
analyzed separately flight requiring more power to counter drag

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 Platform Design – Tail Sitters

MTT CTT DTT Reconfigurable Wings

Type Pros Cons
Tail-sitters Ability to make transition without extra Difficulty of control during transition
actuators saves weight
Mono Thrust Mostly designed for military purposes Need for relatively stronger tails to
Transition (MTT) absorb landing impacts
Collective Thrust DTT (Differential Thrust) more stable than More susceptible to crosswinds and
Transition (CTT) CST (Control Surface) during take-off, reduced efficiency in horizontal flight
and DTT hover and landing but CST better in
horizontal flight
Reconfigurable Deploys the best of CTT and MTT to Few experiments tested for entire
Wings provide more lift in horizontal flight flight envelope
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 Flight Dynamics Model

Model Structure Parameters

• Kinematics • Attitude / Aspect Ratio
• Dynamic Motions • Aerofoil and Combined Forces
• Wind effects – Gusts/ Cross Winds • Flight Envelope
• Conversion/ Transition Stability – Vertical/ Transition/ Horizontal Mode
• Aerodynamic Forces (Lift/ Drag) • Euler Angles – convertible planes and
partial tail-sitters (limited fuselage
• Tilting Mechanism
movement, singularity)
• No systematic modelling for
– Rotary Wing/ Dual System/ Reconfigurable
• Quaternion – Tail-sitter of full flight
envelope
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Control Systems Architecture

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 Flight Control Techniques
Control System Theory Control Laws Classification
• Classic control theory – logic under • Linear
– Single input single output (SISO) – Simple and easy to implement
– Multiple input multi output (MIMO) – Less computation and design time
– Degrades when away from
– Multiple actuators equilibrium and doing agile
• Elevators/ Rudders/ Ailerons manoeuvres
• Motors/ tilting rotors – Use separate for vertical, transition,
– Multiple sensors horizontal
• Low level – Attitude Control – PID and LQR Controllers
• Mid level – Velocity Control • Non-linear
• High level – Position Control – Complex and intensive
• Modern control theory – Considers full dynamics
– Differential equations – Non-linear aerodynamics, kinematics,
– Matrix equation actuator saturations and rate
limitations
– Control gains in MIMO – Back-stepping, Gain-scheduling and
– Time variant & invariant Dynamic inversion

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 Thanks

1Global Strategic Technologies Ltd, J.K Organisation, INDIA

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

2JK Lakshmipat University, INDIA

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
 Modelling System – Salient Points
• Hybrid UAVs are generally capable of operating in relatively confined area
• Kinematics mostly defined by local coordinate and body-frame coordinate
– For cruise flight the stability coordinate additionally considers wind effect
– Euler angles formulations define the convertible planes and single modes
– Quaternion representations are mostly used in tail-sitters over full flight envelope to
avoid Euler angle singularity
• Dynamic motions for the rigid body dynamics
– Concerns with translational and rotational motion of hybrid UAVs
– Generally involves the combined Force and Moments with respect to CG of the UAV
– The other option utilizes conservation of energy principle to derive the equations of
motion
• Aerodynamic forces for hybrid are more complex and mostly determined
by practical flight experimental data, wind-tunnel experiments or CFD
results – propulsion systems may additionally involves propeller
aerodynamics and motor dynamics, not enough references for utilization
• The tilting mechanism is limited to convertible UAVs but studies suggest
it is so far done in simplified models
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 Control Systems – Salient Points
• The equation of motion are highly complicated and nonlinear and the
dynamics of hybrid UAV are inherently unstable because in transition
• The transition phase remains critical due to multiple nonlinearities
• From classical theory, reference commands are saturated from out loop
before reaching inner loop – results in good handling of flight variables and
actuator inputs, however works for SISO.
• Hybrid UAVs are complex involving MIMO systems – comprising multiple
actuators (elevators, rudders, ailerons, motors and tilting motors, sensors
for attitude, velocity and position). Requires modern control theory
• From modern theory, computer s/w used to solve first order differential
equations in matrix equations which handles full dynamics of a hybrid UAV
• Although nonlinear controllers are extensively studied, linear controllers are
more popular because they are simple, easy to implement and involves less
computation – but performance degrades away from equilibrium
• Nonlinear controllers considers full dynamics of UAV – accounting for
aerodynamics & kinematics effects, rate limitations and actuator saturation
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 Key Technologies / Challenges

• Autonomy & Control • Data processing & Transmission /

– Autopilot – Fly by (preprogrammed) Storage
waypoints
– Telemetry – Fly by pilot, Fly by camera • Stabilization
• Communications • Anti-spoofing
– Within Visual Range, Beyond Visual • Operations in Civilian airspace
Range • Payloads – Sensors
– Satellite based communication 14
 Design of UAV Systems & Technology
challenges
System Level Payloads
- Concepts of Operation - Auto target recognition
- Communications - On board data processing
availability/reliability - Data compression
- Multi-UAV operations - Cost
- UAVs in manned airspace
Air Vehicle Support system
- Reliability and Safety - Reliability and Safety
- Very long endurance - Logistics footprint
- Survivability - Off base support
- Cost - Aerial refueling
Mission control - Cost
- Reliability and Safety
- Operators per vehicle
- Multi-vehicle control
- Cost

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