Control Research for a Small Fixed-Wing UAV During Ground Taxiing

Ground taxiing is the key process of take-off and landing for a tricycle-undercarriage unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Nonlinear model of a sample UAV is established based on stiffness and damping model of landing gears and tires taken into account. Then lateral nonlinear model is linearized and state space equations are deduced by using nose wheel and ruder as inputs and lateral states as outputs. Adaptive internal model control (AIMC) is proposed and applied to lateral control based on decoupled and linearized dynamic model during ground taxiing process. Different control strategies are analyzed and compared by simulations, and then a combined control strategy of nose wheel steering with holding and rudder control is given. Hardware in loop simulations (HILS) proves the validity of the controller designed.