Modeling and Dynamic Control of Aircraft
Simulation of a Controlled Aircraft
Simulation 1: Model Validation
The earlier simulations used in the model were built in Mathematica, and were used to validate the model. These simulations are very simplistic, and represent the plugging in of values into the calculated equations of motion to see if the resulting motion matches the predicted motion in a qualitative sense.
Many of the calculations depended on complicated interactions between the lift surfaces of the aircraft and the air/pressure flow about them. The coefficients based off of these interactions were obtained through the use of XFOIL, a program created by MIT to model the dynamics of an airfoil in specific conditions.
Simulation 2: Flight Simulator
The final representation of the success of our model and control algorithm is the implementation of the control algorithm on a plane represented in the FlightGear flight simulator using Simulink to take care of the aircraft dynamics and control commands. This simulation shows the aircraft responding to atmospheric input generated by Simulink in order to maintain a steady and level flight path.
Real Life Application
This project was not implemented on a real platform and flown due to difficulty of obtaining a platform on a short time schedule. However, such a test is possible given a platform with an Arduino receiving commands from an RC receiver and sending PWM commands to various actuators on the aircraft. In normal teleoperation mode the Arduino would merely port through the values it was reading, but in autonomous mode it would supply its own values. A single switch on the controller could be mapped to make the switch between the two states.
