Attitude Control of a Small UAV Using a Flow Sensor System

Abstract

The present paper describes the attitude control of a small UAV using a flow sensor system. The installed flow sensors measure the flow field characteristics around the wing, which are sensitive to the attitude of the airplane. The dynamics of the responses of the flow sensors to the attitude variation were identified in dynamic wind tunnel experiments, and the obtained dynamic model related the flow sensor output to the airplane attitude. The attitude of an airplane was then controlled by the elevons so that the desired flow sensor output was attained, resulting in a maximum lift coefficient. The controller was designed using the H_∞ control method with sufficiently robust stability. Numerical simulations and actual flight tests were conducted, and effective control of the airplane attitude using the small flow sensors was demonstrated.