Title: The ServoHeli-20 rotorcraft UAV project

Authors: Juntong Qi, Dalei Song, Lei Dai, Jianda Han

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, CAS, Nanta Street 114#, Shenyang, China; Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, CAS, Nanta Street 114#, Shenyang, China; Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, CAS, Nanta Street 114#, Shenyang, China; Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, CAS, Nanta Street 114#, Shenyang, China; Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Abstract: This paper describes recent research on the design, implement and testing of a small-scaled rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (RUAV) system – ServoHeli-20. A turbine-powered UAV weighted less than 10 kg was designed, and its major components tested by a group of undergraduate students at Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang, China. The aircraft was designed to reach a top speed of more than 20 mps and fly a distance of more than 10 km and then is going to be used as a testbed for experimentally evaluating advanced control methodologies dedicated on improving the manoeuvrability, reliability as well as autonomy of RUAV. Sensors and controller are implemented onboard. The full system has been tested successfully in the autonomous mode using the multi-channel decoupling PID controller. The results show that the rotorcraft UAV can follow the trajectory which assigned by the ground control station exactly in the real windy environment.

Keywords: rotorcraft UAV; platform design; autonomous flight control; multichannel decoupling PID; PID control; unmanned aerial vehicles; advanced control; manoeuvrability; reliability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2010.030190

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2010 Vol.8 No.1/2/3/4, pp.57 - 69

Published online: 11 Dec 2009 *

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