Analysis of a quadrotor in forward flight

In general, quadrotors are designed to be stabilized about hover conditions. This allows the dynamics of the vehicle to be linearized about a single equilibrium point. Additionally, aerodynamic effects can be neglected leaving only rigid body dynamics to be modeled. While this formulation works under hover conditions, it is no longer valid when flying at high speed or in prolonged forward flight as the aerodynamics can no longer be ignored. This results in a highly nonlinear system with both aerodynamics and rigid body dynamics affecting the dynamics. In this thesis, a model of a quadrotor that takes into account both rigid-body dynamics and aerodynamics is presented. Flight testing was performed to test the validity of the this dynamic model. These flight tests were performed using a new flight space integrated into the Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel using a motion capture system. Additional flight tests were performed to gather data for a system identification of a quadrotor in forward flight using subspace methods. The results of the system identification can be used for control design for the system.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Wiken, James Neil

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jonathan P. How.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98812

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/98812