Development of an autopilot for automatic landing of an unmanned aerial vehicle

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2011

Author

Arıbal, Seçkin

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This thesis presents the design of an autopilot and guidance system for an unmanned aerial vehicle. Classical (PID) and modern control (LQT, Sliding Mode) methods for autonomous navigation and landing in adverse weather conditions are implemented. Two different guidance systems are designed in order to navigate through waypoints during normal and/or emergency flight. The nonlinear Pioneer UAV model is used in controller development and simulations. Aircraft is linearized at different trim points and total airspeed, altitude, roll and yaw autopilots are designed using Matlab/Simulink environment for lateral and longitudinal control of the aircraft. Gain scheduling is used to combine controllers designed for different trim points. An optimal landing trajectory is determined using “Steepest Descent” Algorithm according to the dynamic characteristics of the aircraft. Optimal altitude trajectory is used together with a lateral guidance against cross-wind disturbance. Finally, simulations including landing under crosswind, tailwind, etc., are run and the results are analyzed in order to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the controllers.

Subject Keywords

Automatic pilot (Airplanes)

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613391/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/20596

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

S. Arıbal, “Development of an autopilot for automatic landing of an unmanned aerial vehicle,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2011.