Design of a Propulsion Force Controller Including an Airframe Velocity Estimator Using an Acceleration Sensor and Position Sensor for Electric Propeller-driven planes

Abstract

In recent years, eVTOL, a type of propeller drive system, has been actively researched for non-contact and contact work. In this research, we define the resultant force of the thrust exerted by the propeller and the external force (gravity and air resistance) applied to the airframe as the airframe propulsion, and perform high-precision control of the airframe propulsion. An effective way to control the aircraft propulsion force is to estimate the aircraft speed and feed it back to the disturbance observer. However, the acceleration sensor that measures body acceleration is vulnerable to noise in the low frequency range, and the position sensor that measures the position of the aircraft is vulnerable to noise in the high frequency range. Therefore, in this research, we propose to estimate the airframe speed by using both the position sensor and the acceleration sensor and use it for the propulsion controller.