Design and Flight Test of Flight Control System for a Small Endurance UAV Only Using 4 Hz Single-Antenna GPS Receiver

Am Cho, Jihoon Kim, Heekwon No, Changdon Kee, and Samok Goo

Abstract:	In other works, it was shown that automatic control of UAV is possible using a single-antenna GPS receiver only. Single-antenna GPS receiver is used widely as a navigation sensor for numerous applications including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It provides position and velocity measurements, from which pseudo-attitudes can also be synthesized for a fixed wing aircraft. This suggests the potential of single-antenna GPS receiver as the sole sensor of the aircraft. Based on the experience of previous work, this paper develops the flight control system for a small endurance UAV only using a low-cost single-antenna GPS receiver that provides navigation solution at 4 Hz. The small endurance UAV developed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute is a tailless flyingwing UAV with elevon and two wingtip rudders as control surfaces. Linearized system models, which are different from traditional fixed-wing aircraft, are obtained by system identification process. Based on the identified model, linear quadratic regulator controllers are designed. Various simulations and flight tests are conducted to verify the developed system. During flight tests, inertial sensors such as gyros and accelerometers are not used at all to show the full potential of a single-antenna GPS receiver based attitude determination system. Flight test results verified again the value of proposed flight control system and showed that it could be applied to tailless flying-wing UAV successfully.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2010 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 25 - 27, 2010 Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	285 - 292
Cite this article:	Cho, Am, Kim, Jihoon, No, Heekwon, Kee, Changdon, Goo, Samok, "Design and Flight Test of Flight Control System for a Small Endurance UAV Only Using 4 Hz Single-Antenna GPS Receiver," Proceedings of the 2010 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2010, pp. 285-292.
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