Longitudinal Attitude Control and Stability Analysis for a Low Aspect Ratio Flying Wing UAV at High Angle of Attack

Abstract

With high aerodynamic efficiency and low observable design for flying wing configuration, the control ability decreases and the flying risk increases, especially during the takeoff and landing processes for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). To solve the nonlinear characteristic problem of the flying wing configuration at a high angle of attack (AoA) for a low aspect ratio flying wing UAV, a controllable region and stability analysis method is proposed in the paper. Firstly, the aerodynamic characteristics and static stability of a flying wing UAV are analyzed. Secondly, according to the characteristics of aerodynamic data, an efficient longitudinal trim state calculation method under the low‐speed range is proposed. The trim state contour map can be used effectively with the proposed trim state calculation method, which can further analyze the constraint relationship between different trim states and the controllable region of the UAV. Thirdly, the stability of different trim states is analyzed through the phase portrait between AoA and airspeed. With the analysis result, longitudinal attitude and AoA decoupling control laws are designed based on the incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion (INDI) method. The effectiveness and adaptability of the designed control methods are verified through simulation at high AoA.