Conceptual designing — Unmanned aerial vehicle flight control system

Conceptual design procedure of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight control system is discussed in this paper. Detailed discussion of important aspects of UAV relating to its role, mission, capabilities and their implications on the flight control system are discussed. This leads to the basic requirements for the flight control and then translates to the type of controller to be used on board the UAV. Different control methodologies are compared to help select the best control scheme. Constraints for the control system or limits based on structural and dynamic parameters are introduced so as to aid the designer in designing the adaptive or modern controllers. This will ensure that the structural limits will be observed and a more practical controller be synthesized. The example at the end elaborates the use of this approach.