Dynamics exploration and aggressive maneuvering of a Longitudinal Vectored Thrust VTOL aircraft

In this paper we introduce the model of a Longitudinal Vectored Thrust Vertical Take Off and Landing (LVT-VTOL) aircraft. We believe that the proposed model, while described by reasonably tractable equations, captures several interesting dynamic features of new generation vectored thrust aerial vehicles with new maneuvering capabilities as, in particular, the ability of vertical take off and landing and transition to a (classical) forward flight configuration. We characterize the equilibrium manifold of the LVT-VTOL in the entire range of operation (from hover to forward flight). Then, as main contribution of the paper, we propose an optimal control based strategy to explore the trajectory manifold (the set of possibly aggressive trajectories) of the proposed model. To show the effectiveness of the exploration strategy, we compute a full transition from hover to forward flight.