Research On Flight Control Technologies For Unmanned Gyroplane

With the development of aerial vehicle currently and in future time, which contains developingunmanned aerial vehicle with novel structural configuration and high autonomous control levels, thisdissertation focuses on the unmanned gyroplane and the correlative control system design. With theproblems emerged in practical work, this dissertation solved the problems with correlative theories.All research work included in this dissertation contains some aspects, such as analysis of modelingand flight dynamics, analysis of stability and control response, design of flight control systems,parameters optimized for controller based on virtual reference feedback tuning method, design ofstates reconfigurable flight control system based on robust and non-fragile H∞theories, and so on.This dissertation firstly develops the work of analysis on the response of rotor with no drivepower from the engine of the gyroplane, then analyzes unique structural configuration and modelingcharacters. In following paper, the flight dynamics mathematical model for the unmanned gyroplaneis established with analysis for its structural configuration, and then a linear model of the unmannedgyroplane is derived. The significance of some main aerodynamic derivatives is analyzed. With theaerodynamic derivatives, the stability and control response of the unmanned gyroplane is analyzed.Consequently the unique control response of the unmanned gyroplane is shown in the dissertation.Secondly, considering the control response and flight dynamics characters of the unmannedgyroplane, some correlative control loops, include autonomic take-off control loop, high control loopand turning flight navigation control loop, are designed. These research contains attitude control,decoupled control, velocity control, position control and so on. Some investigations are acquired.Considering taxiing on the ground of the unmanned gyroplane, aerodynamic force from the rotor pullis asymmetry so that the force worked on gyroplane are imbalance. So an autonomic takeoff methodis proposed, in which the longitudinal and lateral control are kept in balance with ground force,attitude and lateral skidding feedback, so that the unmanned gyroplane can climb up smoothly withoutground constraints. To height control loop for the unmanned gyroplane, either rotor pitch control orengine thrust force control can successfully work for height control loop. Base on analysis of thesetwo methods, a new method that integrates rotor pitch control and engine thrust control is proposed,which can show the unique character of gyroplane. And the method presented can also avoiddisadvantage in rotor pitch control or engine thrust force control either. Considering navigationcontrol of turning flight for the unmanned gyroplane, the flight characteristics on circle track wasanalyzed and the velocity control was presented. For the problem of untracking the circle track, a correction strategy was designed with lateral aberrancy. In a word, the height loop and the velocityloop was co-designed on the basis of attitude loop. Finally, a hardware-in-loop simulation wasprovided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed navigation approach and control strategy.Next, considering the mathematics model of the unmanned gyroplane is very complex and full ofnonlinear, combining with self-adaptation control theory and system identification system theory,virtual reference feedback tuning method is presented for controller designing in attitude control loopof unmanned gyroplane, in which no model of the plant is needed. Based on input and outputmeasurements in a linear model, the problem of controller design is transformed into optimizing acontrol cost function of a norm type. As to the optimization problem in controller designing, themethod of system identification can be used. Moreover, this method proposed has the capability ofself adapted real time, so that it can modify the controller parameters real time with input and outputdata measured, in order to meet the command of flight control.Then, with the development of unmanned gyroplane currently and in future time, to improve theautonomous control levels of unmanned gyroplane, the method of states reconfigurable system designis presented with output data measured while the states feedback loop can not work normally. Thisstates reconfigurable system is designed to provide feedback signals for gyroplane, so that it canensure the mission can be finished normally, enhancing the states configurable capability forunmanned gyroplane. Considering a class of uncertain systems with parametric uncertainties and thedynamic response character, the problem of states configurable system design is researched withlinear model of the unmanned gyroplane. Further more, a robust and non-fragile H∞statesconfigurable system design method is derived in the form of a linear matrix inequality, viz LMI,which can improve the stability of closed system with parametric uncertainties. An illustrativenumerical example and practical simulation is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of theproposed approach.Finally, the engineering realization of control system for the unmanned gyroplane, includingexploitation and developing process, is presented, especially the design process of hardware andsoftware on the unmanned gyroplane. To verify the effectiveness of the control strategy proposed inthis dissertation, a semi-physical simulating system is used and the simulation is practiced accordingto the requirements of test-fly, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.