(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006-08)
Johnson, Eric N.; Turbe, Michael A.; Wu, Allen D.; Kannan, Suresh K.; Neidhoefer, James C.
Fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with the ability to hover have significant
potential for applications in urban or other constrained environments where the
combination of fast speed, endurance, and stable hovering flight can provide strategic
advantages. This paper discusses the use of dynamic inversion with neural network
adaptation to provide an adaptive controller capable of transitioning a fixed-wing UAV to
and from hovering flight in a nearly stationary position. This approach allows utilization of
the entire low speed flight envelope even beyond stall conditions. The method is applied to
the GTEdge, an 8.75 foot wing span fixed-wing aerobatic UAV which has been fully
instrumented for autonomous flight. Results from actual flight test experiments of the
system where the airplane transitions from high speed steady flight into a stationary hover
and then back are presented.