Nonlinear dynamic inversion controller for a ducted-fan UAV

Small ducted fan aerial unmanned aerial vehicles possess hover and vertical take-off and landing capabilities in addition to normal high speed flight. With autonomous flight control system these vehicles have several applications especially for mission in urban environment. This thesis is about developing a nonlinear flight control system for the GTSpy, a small ducted fan Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to perform a vertical to horizontal transitional flight using Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion technique(NDI). This vehicle takes off like a helicopter performs an 11 degree transition and moves forward performing a horizontal flight without any loss in altitude. A simulator model is constructed in MATLAB from a force and moment analysis of the GTSpy to perform the transition analysis. The advantages of having a nonlinear controller over the linear controller are also examined. The performance of the controller under crosswind disturbances is examined.Master of Science (Aerospace Engineering