Design, Simulation, and Flight Testing of a Multi-Purpose VTOL Flight Control System

A novel flight control system architecture aimed at vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles was designed, simulated, and flight tested. A simulation model was developed using an empirically-derived aerodynamic model and mass properties for a subscale fixed-wing aircraft. The simulation framework was used to design and simulate the proposed flight control architecture through a series of piloted simulations. A simulation model of a VTOL variant of the fixed-wing vehicle was also created to demonstrate the flight control system on a transitioning VTOL aircraft. Flight tests were performed at the NASA Langley Autonomy Lab for Intelligent Flight Technology (ALIFT) and City Environment Range Testing for Autonomous Integrated
Navigation (CERTAIN) facilities to validate the proposed control system. Validation flights were performed on a small multirotor vehicle and a subscale fixed-wing vehicle to assess hover and forward flight performance. A Pixhawk® flight computer was used along with the MathWorks® UAV Toolbox to provide rapid control law
integration and testing. The presented results aim to validate the feasibility of the proposed control system architecture and simulation-to-hardware process.