In-Flight Verification of a model-based designed Ground Controller for an innovative Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV)

At the Institute of Flight System Dynamics of the Technische Universität München (TUM), a digital auto flight system for a fixed-wing Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) featuring a novel diamond-shaped configuration was designed, implemented and tested up to its very successful and impressive first flight campaign at the Denel Overberg Testrange, South Africa in July 2017. The capabilities of the UAV comprise a fully automated flight mission, with automatic take-off and landing including ground control for centerline tracking, runway alignment and automatic braking. This paper presents the in-flight verification of the model-based designed ground controller during the first flight of the UAV Demonstrator. Prior to the first flight, the performance during the lift-off and touch-down phases could be simulated only and never be tested before in real-live. However, the recorded flight test data exhibit and underline the capabilities of the ground controller during the whole automatic take-off and landing maneuvers. The focus of this paper is set on the analysis and verification of the ground controller performance as demonstrated in the course of the UAV's first flight in comparison to dedicated model-in-the-loop simulations.     «

At the Institute of Flight System Dynamics of the Technische Universität München (TUM), a digital auto flight system for a fixed-wing Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) featuring a novel diamond-shaped configuration was designed, implemented and tested up to its very successful and impressive first flight campaign at the Denel Overberg Testrange, South Africa in July 2017. The capabilities of the UAV comprise a fully automated flight mission, with automatic take-off and landing including gro...     »