Performance estimation of a ducted fan UAV

Abstract: The ducted fan UAV is an unmanned aerial vehicle consisting mainly of a propeller enclosed in a open ended tube. The UAV has the same basic functions as an ordinary helicopter UAV but has several advantages to the same. This thesis aims to estimate the performance of the concept of the ducted fan UAV. The company where this thesis has been written, DST Control AB, is currently investigating the economical possibilities to continue the development of this kind of UAV. This thesis shall provide DST Control AB with a theoretical as well as experimental ground for the investigation by estimation the lift capacity, position accuracy and wind tolerance. A ducted fan UAV prototype and a mathematical model for that UAV have been developed by DST Control AB and a student project at Linköping University. The model is constructed through pure physical modeling. Several noise sources have been added to better fit the reality. Several experiments have been conducted to validate the model with satisfying results. Experiments to determine the lift capacity of the craft have also been conducted. These experiments showed a slightly smaller lift capacity than the theoretically calculated lift capacity. The wind tolerance has not been tested in experiments because of the lack of available wind tunnels but simulations have given an estimation of this tolerance. To estimate the position accuracy, two different control systems have been implemented. The simplest control system is a system consisting of several PID controllers. The system is divided into two separate subsystems connected in cascade. The inner subsystem takes the pitch, roll and yaw angle as inputs and gives the rudder angles as outputs. The outer subsystem takes the inertial position as input and gives roll, pitch and yaw as outputs. Together, the two subsystems can be used to control the entire craft. The inner subsystem has also been replaced with a small LQ Compensator. An LQ Compensator for the entire system is also implemented giving about as good performance as the PID controller and better performance than the PID/LQ combination.