Experimental Validation of Total Energy Control System for UAVs

This paper presents an analysis of a Total Energy Control System (TECS) introduced by Lambregts to control unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) velocity and altitude by using the total energy distribution. Furthermore, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) approach was used to predict aircraft response in terms of angular rates and linear acceleration during a test flight campaign. From both approaches, state equations were obtained to model the aircraft using Matlab-Simulink. From an aerodynamic study, airplane characteristics were obtained in terms of non-dimensional derivatives and compared to those obtained from the experimental methods. It was determined that TECS approach was very accurate; however, disturbance errors could be decreased by adjusting some model parameters. On the other hand, it was difficult to obtain a real estimation from the EKF method due to the presence of turbulence during flight and the relatively low inertia of the scale model. Dynamic characteristics were validated using a low-cost inertial sensor that cab be easily integrated in UAV platforms. The gathered data can be used to predict model characteristics by integrating the information into flight simulators for future design development.