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Design and Tune Controller for VTOL UAV

VTOL UAV with two forward rotors transitioning from hover to fixed wing, and plots of altitude, pitch, tilt, and airspeed during transition.

This series of examples shows you how to design and tune a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAV controller using a MATLAB® Project template as a reference application. A VTOL UAV has both fixed wings and multirotors, which enables it to take off and land in areas without a runway, and transition to fixed-wing configuration during cruise for faster flight. When designing the VTOL UAV, you must tune the controller for three configurations:

  • Hover Configuration — The VTOL UAV holds the rotors vertically during hover, takeoff, and land.

  • Transition Configuration — The VTOL UAV tilts the rotors horizontally during transition into fixed-wing configuration, and vertically during transition into hover configuration.

  • Fixed-Wing Configuration — The VTOL UAV holds the rotors horizontally for propulsion, and uses the ailerons to turn and brake.

The process of customizing and tuning a VTOL UAV controller consists of these steps:

Then you can use Unreal Engine® to visualize the VTOL UAV mission. See Visualize VTOL Flight Mission Over Urban Environment for more information.

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