Modeling and control of a vertical take-off airplane

This paper presents the mathematical model of a fixed wing UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The UAV is not a tail-sitter configuration and takes-off with the fuselage at the horizontal position. An experimental prototype driven by four brushless motors has been built including the onboard avionics. The applied control law is based on separated saturation functions. Numerical simulations have shown the satisfactory performance of the proposed control law. The prototype has also been tested experimentally in hover only and the control strategy has achieved that orientation angles have been regulated close to the origin.