| Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have been research in the past decade for a broad range of tasks and application domains such as search and rescue, reconnaissance, traffic control, pipe line inspections, surveillance, border patrol, and communication bridging.;This work describes the design and implementation of a lightweight Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) semi-autonomous Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Presented here is a methodology for System Identification utilizing the Box-Jenkins model estimator on recorded flight data to characterize the system and develop a mathematical model of the aircraft. Additionally, a novel microprocessor, the XMOS, is utilized to navigate and maneuver the aircraft utilizing a PD control system.;In this thesis is a description of the aircraft and the sensor suite utilized, as well as the flight data and supporting videos for the benefit of the UAV research community. |
