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Swarm of Hybrid UAVs for the Acquisition of Distributed Measurements

By Christophe De WagterPosted on
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A Swarm of Hybrid UAV can perform measurements in a large area. To cover this area, the drones need quite some range. However, to perform their measurements, they should be able to land anywhere. That is why the choice is made for hybrid UAVs. A hybrid UAV can take off and land vertically (VTOL) like a helicopter and transition into fast forward flight like an airplane.

There are still challenges regarding hybrid UAVs. We work on control strategies for attitude stabilization as well as guidance and navigation. This way, the hybrid is able to remain stable during hover, forward flight, and in between. Furthermore, it is able to estimate the wind speed and compensate for it using a model of the flight dynamics, such that it can track any ground velocity reference.

Finally, the swarm of hybrids should be able to perform measurements. To do this efficiently, the UAVs need to cooperate, but preferably not in a centralized way. The goal is to give each UAV a local behavior, that will result in the desired global behavior.

 

Publications

Ewoud Smeur: Incremental Control of Hybrid Micro Air Vehicles. Delft University of Technology, 2018, ISBN: 978-94-6186-973-9.

Ewoud Smeur, Murat Bronz, Guido de Croon: Incremental Control and Guidance of Hybrid Aircraft Applied to a Tailsitter Unmanned Air Vehicle. In: Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics: devoted to the technology of dynamics and control, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 274–287, 2020, ISSN: 0731-5090.

Ewoud Smeur, Qiping Chu, Guido de Croon: Adaptive Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion for Attitude Control of Micro Air Vehicles. In: Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics: devoted to the technology of dynamics and control, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 450–461, 2016, ISSN: 0731-5090.

E. J.J. Smeur, G. C.H.E. de Croon, Q. Chu: Cascaded incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion for MAV disturbance rejection. In: Control Engineering Practice, vol. 73, pp. 79–90, 2018, ISSN: 0967-0661.

EJJ Smeur, QP Chu, GCHE de Croon, BDW Remes, C de Wagter, E van der Horst: Modelling of a Hybrid UAV Using Test Flight Data. In: de Croon, GCHE; van Kampen, E; de Wagter, C; de Visser, CC (Ed.): Proceedings of the International Micro Air Vehicle Conference and Competition 2014, pp. 196–203, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, 2014, (The International Micro Air Vehicle Conference and Competition 2014 ; Conference date: 12-08-2014 Through 15-08-2014).

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