Date of Graduation
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Committee Chair
Yu Gu
Committee Co-Chair
Marcello Napolitano
Committee Member
Mario Perhinschi
Abstract
Autonomous Formation Flight is a key approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and managing traffic in future high density airspace. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) have made it possible for the physical demonstration and validation of autonomous formation flight concepts inexpensively and eliminates the flight risk to human pilots. This thesis discusses the design, implementation, and flight testing of three different formation flight control methods, Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID); Fuzzy Logic (FL); and NonLinear Dynamic Inversion (NLDI), and their respective performance behavior. Experimental results show achievable autonomous formation flight and performance quality with a pair of low-cost unmanned research fixed wing aircraft and also with a solo vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) quadrotor.
Recommended Citation
Rice, Caleb Michael, "Control Design and Performance Analysis for Autonomous Formation Flight Experimentss" (2015). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 7121.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/7121