L_1 Adaptive Control Of FIXED-WING UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

Abstract

In this thesis, L_1 adaptive controller is used to fully control fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle’s attitude (UAV), both longitudinal and lateral. Two modeling approaches are used to model the UAV. The classical approach which uses the kinematic and dynamic differential equations that describe the vehicle motion, forces and moments. This approach results in a fully nonlinear model of the vehicle. The model is, then linearized and augmented with the actuator dynamics. The controller is designed using the augmented linear model and tested using the fully nonlinear model. The second approach is the total energy control system (TECS) in which the aircraft is considered as a point of mass. In this technique, the energy-based concept is used in modeling aircraft depending on energy states.