Model identification of a micro air vehicle in loitering flight based on attitude performance evaluation

• Published in: IEEE transactions on robotics Vol. 20; no. 4; pp. 702 - 712
• Main Authors: Wu, Huaiyu, Sun, Dong, Zhou, Zhaoying
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.08.2004; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aircraft; Applied sciences; Attitude control; Channels; Compensation; Computer programs; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer simulation; Control theory. Systems; Data acquisition; Data analysis; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency domain analysis; Mathematical models; Micro air vehicles; Modelling and identification; Performance analysis; Predictive models; Robotics; Robots; Rolls; Simulation; Spectral analysis; System identification; Time domain analysis; Vehicles; Flight test; Performance evaluation; Exogenous; Transient response; ARX model; Data acquisition; Frequency domain method; Autoregressive model; Flight control; Modeling; Spectral analysis; Transients; Closed feedback; Time domain method; Model matching; Performance analysis; System identification; Roll; Aircraft; Multiple channel
• ISSN: 1552-3098; 1941-0468
• DOI: 10.1109/TRO.2004.829442

This paper presents a model identification of a micro air vehicle in loitering flight, based on the input-output data collected from flight experiments on a homemade 1-m-sized aircraft. A miniature flight-control system, which consists of the onboard and the ground sections, is equipped with a multichannel data logger associated with the data acquisition software. Modeling and performance analysis are carried out, based on the flight-test data using a system identification technique. Two fourth-order autoregressive with exogenous input (ARX) models are identified to present the attitude characteristics of the longitudinal (pitch) and the lateral (roll) control channels, respectively. The validity of the identified model is verified by both time-domain model prediction and frequency-domain spectral analysis. Based on the proposed ARX models, two compensators are further designed using a frequency-domain method, and then added to the closed-loop control systems to improve the transient performance of the pitch- and roll-control channels. Simulations and experiments demonstrate that the flight performance obtained by the proposed ARX model-based compensation control can be improved.