Mathematical modelling of unmanned aerial vehicles

UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) UAVs are emerging as requirement of time and it is expected that in next five to ten years, complete air space will be flooded with UAVs, committed in varied assignments ranging from military, scientific and commercial usage. Non availability of human pilot inside UAV necessitates the requirement of an onboard auto pilot in order to maintain desired flight profile against any unexpected disturbance and/or parameter variations. Design of such an auto pilot requires an accurate mathematical model of UAV. The aim of this paper is to present a consolidated picture of UAV model. This paper first consolidates complete 6 DOF Degree of Freedom) equations of motion into a nonlinear mathematical model and its simulation using model parameters of a real UAV. Model is then linearized into longitudinal and lateral modes. State space models of linearized modes are simulated and analyzed for stability parameters. The developed model can be used to design auto pilot for UAV. (author)