AEM 5333 Design, Build, Model, Simulate, Test and Fly Small Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles

AEM 5333 – Design, Build, Model, Simulate, Test and Fly Small Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles

Course ContentOverview

Spring 2013

Bérénice Mettler

Part I: Uninhabited Aircraft Missions, Platforms and Systems

1. Overview of System-Oriented Design and Analysis

- Course overview and organization.

- Historical overview and motivation.

- Introduction to systems-oriented approach.

2. Missions

- Existing civilian and military applications.

- Future applications and challenges.

- UAV mission requirements and specifications for design project.

3. Aircraft Platform

- Aircraft types.

- Components (airframe, propulsion, actuators, etc.).

- Effects of size.

- Derivation of vehicle and component level requirements.

Materials and resources:

- Section 1.1, System Architecture, Beard & McLean. (R)

- Section 1.2, Design Models, Beard & McLean. (R)

- Introductory Slides, Prof. G. Balas. 2010. (DB)

- Air Force UAVs: The Secret History, T. Ehrhard, 2010, The Air Force Association. (DB)

Additional Readings:

- Paper on platform comparison using spatial cost-to-go method, Kong&Mettler 2010. (DB)

- Notes on scaling effects, B. Mettler. (DB)

Assignments:

- Selection of candidate UAV radio/controlled plane.

Part II: Components and System Architecture

1. Sensors and Actuators

-Overview of sensors and functions (IMU, GPS, etc.).

- Sensors physical measurement principle.

- Servo actuators.

2. SystemArchitecture

- Overall system-level architecture.

- Definition of interfaces between components (Digital/analog I/O, PWM signals, RS-232, Universal Serial Bus (USB), Ethernet, CAN Bus).

- Flight computer (CPU architectures).

- Software system, real-time operating systems.

- Communication.

- Overview of avionic systems.

Materials and resources:

- Section 1.1, System Architecture, Beard & McLean, 2012. (R)

- Chapter 7, Sensors for MAVs, Beard & McLean, 2012. (R)

- Exhibit of UMN Ultrastick UAV architectures, components, interfaces and avionics, flightcomputer and software. (DB)

Additional Readings:

TBD

Part I-II Assignments:

- Mission level requirements and specifications

- Aircraft specifications as derived from mission requirements

- Component selection

Part III: Aerodynamic and Dynamic Modeling and Simulation

1. Modeling Overview

- Brief review of first principles modeling of a fixed wing aircraft.

- Modelingapproaches and model forms (component-wise, transfer function, state-space).

- Modeling requirements (simulation, control design, etc.).

- Review of longitudinal and lateral-directional state-space and transfer-function models.

- Empirical determination of Ultrastick physical and aerodynamic characteristics (mass properties and primary aerodynamic coefficients).

3. System Identification

- Overview and general principles.

-Overview of system identification methods.

- Frequency domain identification (transfer function extraction, model fitting).

4. Kinematic Models and Miscellaneous

- Flight kinematics and wind triangle.

- Modeling atmospheric disturbances.

Materials and resources:

- Paper: System identification of the Ultrastick, Dorobontu et al., 2013. (R)

- Presentation: System identification of the Ultrastick, Dorobontu et al., 2012. (R)

- Section 2.3 Airspeed, Wind Speed and Ground Speed, Beard & McLean, 2012. (R)

- Section 2.4 The Wind Triangle, Beard & McLean, 2012. (R)

- Section 4.4 Atmospheric Disturbances, Beard & McLean. (R)

Part III.1 Assignments:

- Linear and nonlinear simulation UAV model development in Simulink including wind modeling; simulation, trim, linearization of UAV model and kinematics

- Extracted linear models from flight-test data

- Setup of Simulink linear aircraft models. Modeling of individual vehicle components (i.e. actuators, sensors, sample rate, filters, winds, commands, etc.).

- Testing and refinement of aircraft models based on flight data

Part III.2 Assignments:

- Extract nonparametric linear frequency response models of the UAV from flight test data

- Identify parametric 1st and 2nd order transfer function models with time-delays from frequency response data (actuator, longitudinal and lateral-directional)

- Update Ultrastick Simulink model

Part IV: Control Design

1. Control Augmentation

- Overall control architecture.

- Inner and outer-loop flight control design for fixed wing aircraft.

- Actuator saturations.

- Longitudinal and lateral-directional control loops.

2. Control Design Methods

- Classic control design.

- Model-based designs.

- Pole placement.

Materials and resources:

- Chapter 6, Autopilot Design Using Successive Loop Closure, Beard & McLean, 2012. (R)

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Part IVAssignments:

- Design longitudinal and lateral-direction control laws

- Generation of real-time control

- Implementation and testing of longitudinal and lateral-directional axis flight controllers insimulation model

- Analysis and design of flight controllers for Ultrastick aircraft longitudinal and lateral-directional axes

Part V: Test and Evaluation

1. Experiment Design

- Identify objectives, requirements, and technical approach.

- Plan how system will be tested to verify that it meets the requirements and validate that it meets the objectives.

- Identify sensors needed and design flight maneuvers.

2. Ultra Stick Simulation Environment

- Simulink nonlinear aircraft model development based on equations of motion, wind tunnel data and flight data.

- Simulation, trim, linearization of nonlinear UAV model.

3. Software and Hardware-In-the-Loop Evaluation Practices

- Concept of linear simulation for control law development, non-linear simulation for control law analysis, and HIL simulation to verify and validate performance on flight hardware.

- Introduce the concept of model uncertainty, ranges of parameters.

- Use of Monte Carlo simulations to verify and validate design robustness.

4. Flight-Testing and Evaluation Practices

- Flight readiness documents

- Relate flight test results to objectives, requirements, and simulation results

Materials and resources:

-TBD

Additional Readings:

-TBD

Part V Assignments:

- Define trajectories and input sequences for flight tests. Write Objectives and Requirements Document.

- Implement and test flight control laws in linear and nonlinear Simulink aircraft equations of motion.

- Integrate C subroutines into Simulink using S-functions.

- Test simulations. Discuss generation of real-time software using C subroutines and Simulink Real-time Workshop.

- Verify and validate (V&V) control laws meet vehicle and mission level specifications through Monte Carlo and worst-case simulation.

- Implement and test in software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop simulation control, guidance and navigation algorithms. Verify and validate control law performance on flight hardware through HIL testing.

- Write Test Readiness Review document to discuss how you are going to test your control laws in flight.

-Analyze flight test data and compare with objectives, requirements, and simulations.

Part V Assignments:

- Testing and validation of real-time algorithms in hardware-in-the-loop setup;

- Real-time systems, validation of flight test data, algorithms and models.

- Flight test and evaluation

- Flight test redesigned algorithms and compare with simulation.

Part VI: Navigation and Guidance

1. Guidance and Navigation

- Overview of guidance and navigations architectures.

- Path following control.

- Waypoint guidance.

- Vision-Based Guidance.

2. Autonomous Guidance

- Overview of path planning methods (heuristic, trajectory optimization).

- Obstacle field navigation.

- Motion primitive automaton.

- Exteroceptive sensors (laser scanners, flash lasers, radar).

3. Human-in-the-Loop Guidance

- TBD

Materials and resources:

- Chapter 9-12, Design Models for Guidance, Straight-line and Orbit Following, Path Manager, Path Planning, Beard&McLain, 2012. (R)

-Chapter 13, Vision-guidance Navigation, Beard&McLain, 2012. (R)

Additional Readings:

- Dubin (…)

- Kufner (…)

- Mettler&Bachelder (…)

- Dadkhah&Mettler (…)

Part VI Assignments:

- Integration of navigation and guidance algorithm modules into nonlinear UAV simulation.

- Generation of real-time navigation and guidance algorithms for integration into flight control computer.

- Redesign flight control algorithms, filters, trajectories, waypoints, etc.

- Compare flight test results of original and redesigned controller. Lessons learned.

- Final report.

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