Control System Design of a Vertical Take-off and Landing Fixed-Wing UAV

In this study, design and implementation of control system of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vechicle (UAV) with level flight capability is considered. The platform structure includes both multirotor and fixed-wing (FW) conventional aircraft control surfaces: therefore named as VTOL-FW. The proposed method includes implementation of multirotor and airplane controllers and design of an algorithm to switch between them in achieving transitions between VTOL and FW flight modes. Thus, VTOL-FW UAV's flight characteristics are expected to be improved by enabling agile maneuvers, increasing survivability and exploiting full flight envelope capabilities. (C) 2016, IFAC (International Federation of Antomatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.