Space range estimate for battery-powered vertical take-off and landing aircraft

A novel method for estimating the space range of battery-powered vertical take-off and landing(VTOL) aircraft is presented. The method is based on flight parameter optimization and numerical iteration. Subsystem models including required thrust, required power and battery discharge models are presented. The problem to be optimized is formulated, and then case study simulation is conducted using the established method for quantitative analysis. Simulation results show that the space range of battery-powered VTOL aircraft in a vertical plane is an oblate curve, which appears horizontally long but vertically short, and the peak point is not located on the vertical climb path. The method and results are confirmed by parameter analysis and validations.

A Nonlinear Optimal Control Approach for the Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft

The paper proposes a nonlinear optimal control approach for the model of the vertical take off and landing(VTOL)aircraft.This aerial drone receives as control input a directed thrust,as well as forces acting on its wing tips.The latter forces are not perpendicular to the body axis of the drone but are tilted by a small angle.The dynamic model of the VTOL undergoes ap-proximate linearization with the use of Taylor series expansion around a temporary operating point which is recomputed at each iteration of the control method.For the approximately linearized model,an H-infinity feedback controller is designed.The linearization procedure relies on the computation of the Jacobian matrices of the state-space model of the VTOL aircraft.The proposed control method stands for the solution of the optimal control problem for the nonlinear and multivariable dynamics of the aerial drone,under model uncertainties and external per-turbations.For the computation of the contollr's feedback gains,an algebraic Riccati equation is solved at each time-step of the control method.The new nonlinear optimal control approach achieves fast and accurate tracking for all state variables of the VTOL aircnaft,under moderate variations of the control inputs.The stability properties of the control scheme are proven through Lyapunov analysis.

New stabilization design for planar vertical take-off and landing aircrafts

This paper presents a new stabilizing control law for a planar vertical take-off and landing aircraft.The model is first transformed into an equivalent form,and then a control law consisting of a linear term and a saturated term is given for a related subsystem,with the saturation levels being assigned as large as possible.Compared to the existing saturation scheme in which all states are restricted by saturations,the design brings about a relatively fast convergence.The effectiveness and advantage of the design are validated by numerical simulations.

Hover performance estimation and validation of battery powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft

Battery powered vertical takeoff and landing(VTOL) aircraft attracts more and more interests from public, while limited hover endurance hinders many prospective applications. Based on the weight models of battery, motor and electronic speed controller, the power consumption model of propeller and the constant power discharge model of battery, an efficient method to estimate the hover endurance of battery powered VTOL aircraft was presented. In order to understand the mechanism of performance improvement, the impacts of propulsion system parameters on hover endurance were analyzed by simulations, including the motor power density, the battery capacity, specific energy and Peukert coefficient. Ground experiment platform was established and validation experiments were carried out, the results of which showed a well agreement with the simulations. The estimation method and the analysis results could be used for optimization design and hover performance evaluation of battery powered VTOL aircraft.

Problems and Barriers Impeding the Implementation of MagLev Assisted Aircraft Take-Off and Landing Concept

Nowadays, the success of the new technology development and deployment process depends not only on technical, technological solutions, but also on solving the non-technological problems and crossing the societal and psychological barriers. A large international European projects, GABRIEL1 had developed a maglev assisted aircraft take-off and landing, that was applied to conceptual design of aircraft and required on-board and ground systems, had analysed all impacts (effects of concept deployment on effectiveness, safety, security, noise, emissions) and had demonstrated the safe applicability by concept validation. The applied methodology, used methods and the results of the Gabriel projects had been described and discussed by 55 project deliverables. This paper has a special goal: investigating the problems and barriers of possible implementing of the radically new technology, aircraft MagLev assisted take-off and landing. The study was started by identification and classification of the problems and barriers. After it, the problems were systematically analysed by use of special methodology containing the understanding (description) of the problems, investigation of the possible solutions and discussing their applicability (mainly by use of the Gabriel project results). The paper has three major sections: 1) description of the Gabriel concept and project results, 2) introducing some related thoughts on general aspects of new technology developments, and 3) discussion on the problems and their solutions. The major classes of the problems are the 1) technical, technological problems as developing a radically new solution, landing the undercarriage-less aircraft on the magnetic tracks, 2) stakeholders’ problems as decision makers kicking against supporting the developments of so radically new technologies and 3) society barriers like society worrying on and fear of future passengers on flying by aircraft have not conventional undercarriage systems. The paper will show that these problems have safe and cost-effective solutions.

The Influence of Climate Change and Variability on Aircraft Take-off and Landing Performance;a Case Study of the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport-Zanzibar

Climate change (CC) and variability have been world widely reported to pose number of risks in aviation industry including accidents, astray, and other operational difficulties. The impact of weather on landing and take-off performances has been several times experienced at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (AAKIA);however, the influence of climate change and variability to the aircraft performance needs to be assessed. Thus, this study investigated the influence of climate change and variability on aircrafts take-off and landing performances. Specifically, the study investigated;i) the influence of climate change on Take-off Distance Required (TODR) and Maximum Take-off Mass (MTOM) for different types of aircraft;ii) the influence of climate variability to the aircraft landing performance on light, medium and heavy aircraft and lastly, iii) the study investigated the seasonal and annual variability on aircraft landing performance due to climate variability. The datasets used in this study include the eight years (2014-2021), aircraft operational records (diversion and missed approach events) and Aviation Routine Weather Reports (METAR) records which were utilized as the indicators for landing performance, the long-term (1990-2020) annual maximum temperatures (Tmax) which was used to determine the TODR and MTOM. Statistical tools including mean, percentage changes, correlations, regression, and the chi-square test were used for analysis and hypotheses testing. The results revealed that light and medium aircraft categories were significantly most affected on diversion events as compared to the heavy categories;however, for the missed approach events the impact was vice versa. Moreover, the seasonal and annual variability on diversion and missed approach events were significantly different (at p ≤ 0.001). As for the take-off performance, results show that the TODR and MTOM were significantly increasing and decreasing (at p ≤ 0.001), based on increasing air temperatures. Therefore, the study concludes that the changing climate has significantly affected aircraft by increasing the TODR and decreasing the MTOM, while the climate variability has significantly affected landing performance by influencing the diversion and missed approach events. Thus, the study recommends (i) further research works including the feasibility study on runway extension for the safety of future aircraft operations at the AAKIA and (ii) proper maintenance and improvement of the Instrumental Landing Systems (ILS) as an adaptation measures to the landing aircraft during bad weather events.

Prognostics for Lithium-ion batteries for electric Vertical Take-off andLanding aircraft using data-driven machine learning

The health management of batteries is a key enabler for the adoption of Electric Vertical Take-off and Landingvehicles (eVTOLs). Currently, few studies consider the health management of eVTOL batteries. One distinctcharacteristic of batteries for eVTOLs is that the discharge rates are significantly larger during take-off andlanding, compared with the battery discharge rates needed for automotives. Such discharge protocols areexpected to impact the long-run health of batteries. This paper proposes a data-driven machine learningframework to estimate the state-of-health and remaining-useful-lifetime of eVTOL batteries under varying flightconditions and taking into account the entire flight profile of the eVTOLs. Three main features are consideredfor the assessment of the health of the batteries: charge, discharge and temperature. The importance of thesefeatures is also quantified. Considering battery charging before flight, a selection of missions for state-ofhealth and remaining-useful-lifetime prediction is performed. The results show that indeed, discharge-relatedfeatures have the highest importance when predicting battery state-of-health and remaining-useful-lifetime.Using several machine learning algorithms, it is shown that the battery state-of-health and remaining-useful-lifeare well estimated using Random Forest regression and Extreme Gradient Boosting, respectively.

垂直起降系统的互补滑模与情感神经网络控制

针对具有未知扰动的垂直起降机双闭环控制系统,提出一种基于连续径向基情感神经网络的互补积分滑模控制策略。建立了包含未知扰动项的垂直起降机的数学模型,为系统内外环分别设计滑模控制器和互补积分滑模控制器,基于对系统鲁棒性的考量,利用连续径向基情感神经网络逼近系统未知扰动项,给出神经网络权重的自适应律,形成一套新型的复合控制策略,利用Lyapunov方法分析了系统的稳定性。通过对垂直起降机的仿真实验与实物实验进行分析对比,证明了所设计的控制器具有更快的收敛速度、更高的跟踪精度和更佳的鲁棒性。

A multi-strategy pigeon-inspired optimization approach to active disturbance rejection control parameters tuning for vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing UAV

In this paper.Active Disturbance Rejection Control(ADRC)is utilized in the pitch control of a vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)to address the problem of height fluctuation during the transition from hover to level flight.Considering the difficulty of parameter tuning of ADRC as well as the requirement of accuracy and rapidity of the controller,a Multi-Strategy Pigeon-Inspired Optimization(MSPIO)algorithm is employed.Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO),Genetic Algorithm(GA),the basic Pigeon-Inspired Optimization(PIO),and an improved PIO algorithm CMPIO are compared.In addition,the optimized ADRC control system is compared with the pure Proportional-Integral-Derivative(PID)control system and the non-optimized ADRC control system.The effectiveness of the designed control strategy for forward transition is verified and the faster convergence speed and better exploitation ability of the proposed MSPIO algorithm are confirmed by simulation results.

涡轴-涡扇变循环发动机方案及性能匹配设计研究

针对旋转机翼式垂直起降高速巡航飞行器,提出了一种新概念结构形式的涡轴-涡扇变循环(TSFVCE)发动机,能够分别在涡轴和涡扇两种模态工作。首先对涡轴-涡扇变循环发动机的结构及工作模式进行了介绍,并建立基于变比热的部件级性能仿真模型;然后通过循环分析,确定发动机第二涵道比为3,Flade外涵风扇压比为1.98,第一涵道比为0.11,完成发动机设计点性能方案设计;最后分析了核心机驱动风扇(CDFS)可调机构对发动机性能影响机理,得出CDFS放气阀对发动机涡扇模态下的推力与涡轴模态下的功率影响较大,对涡扇模态的推力影响最大为61.5%,对涡轴模态的功率影响最大为33.3%,可利用此特性实现发动机在涡扇和涡轴模态下推力和功率输出的匹配。

不同构型电动垂直起降飞行器动力系统的安全性评估

安全性评估对电动垂直起降飞行器的架构开发、安全管理、设计验证及商业化有着至关重要的作用,但目前国内少有对电动垂直起降飞行器整机构型、系统设计等相关的研究。本文针对4种不同构型的电动垂直起降飞行器,包括垂起尾推固定翼构型、四轴八桨多旋翼构型、固定翼加倾转旋翼构型以及倾转机翼构型,使用功能危害分析和故障树分析方法对4种不同构型的动力系统进行了分析比较。分析表明:垂起尾推固定翼电动垂直起降飞行器动力架构在本文的特定使用场景中相对可靠性更优。2种分析方法的结合,增加了对功能危害理解的全面性和深度,并识别了减轻动力系统失效风险的多种潜在途径。安全性评估结果可以为电动垂直起降飞行器动力构型选择和产品开发提供依据。

利用旋翼机和固定翼飞机的空气动力学理论综合估算电动垂直起降飞行器的飞行性能

根据旋翼机和固定翼飞机的气动理论开发了一个综合方法过程用于估算电动垂直起降(Electric vertical takeoff and landing, e VTOL)飞行器的飞行性能。这种飞机通常采用多旋翼垂直飞行,螺旋桨和机翼的不同组合方式实现飞行。其中,对旋翼和螺旋桨的气动性能采用传统动量理论分析和旋翼元素分析。本文利用此综合理论研究了12架e VTOL飞行器的飞行性能,包括多旋翼飞行器、矢量推进飞行器和升力巡航飞行器。计算了悬停、爬升和下降以及巡航水平飞行,不同飞行状态时驱动电机、旋翼和机身的飞行特性。据此,可以进一步确定电力推进系统的性能指标,以匹配螺旋桨或旋翼,从而满足飞行任务。

电动垂直起降飞行器发展现状及其在航空医疗救援中的应用展望

介绍了电动垂直起降飞行器的基本概念、发展历程、分类方式、特点及优势,从时间、空间、运送能力和安全性等4个维度分析了电动垂直起降飞行器在航空医疗救援中应用的可行性,指出了电动垂直起降飞行器在院前急救、院际转运和应急医疗救援等方面具有较好的应用前景。

Retarded Harrier Maneuver as a New and Efficient Approach for Fixed-Wing Aircraft to Achieve S/VTOL

Modern day VTOL fixed-wing aircraft based on quadplane design is relatively simple and reliable due to lack of complex mechanical components compared to tilt-wings or tilt-rotors in the pre-80’s era. Radio-controlled aerobatic airplanes have thrust-to-weight ratio of greater than unity and are capable of performing a range of impressive maneuvers including the so-called harrier maneuver. We hereby present a new maneuver known as the retarded harrier that is applicable to un/manned fixed-wing aircraft for achieving VTOL flight with a better forward flight performance than a quadplane in terms of weight, speed and esthetics. An airplane with tandem roto-stabilizers is also presented as an efficient airframe to achieve VTOL via retarded harrier maneuver, and detailed analysis is given for hovering at 45° and 60° and comparison is made against the widely adopted quadplane. This work also includes experimental demonstration of retarded harrier maneuver using a small remotely pilot airplane of wingspan 650 mm.

多连杆混联仿生腿式起落架设计与着陆实验研究

针对垂直起降飞行器对着陆场地的硬度及平整性要求高、传统起落架智能化程度低的问题,设计了一种基于多连杆混联机构的仿生腿式地形自适应起落架。首先针对单腿的设计构型进行驱动力矩分析与机构优化,在此基础上完成结构设计。其次基于设计构型提出了相应的驱动与运动控制算法,建立控制系统,并针对四腿机构进行着陆仿真。最后以多旋翼无人机为对象,设计了一套仿生起落架系统,与多旋翼无人机形成了整体的验证平台,实现地形识别-飞控-多腿控制融合设计,完成了搭建结构化地形的自适应着陆实验。研究结果表明,多连杆混联式仿生起落架设计方法可应用于垂直起降飞行器起落架的设计中,完成设计载重的斜坡、台阶、凹凸地面等复杂地形的着陆,具备自适应着陆的能力。

Flight Transient Estimation of VTOL Aircraft with Propellers

Methodological issues associated with the determination of the vertical take-off and landing aerodynamic parameters equipped with two rotary propellers during take-off and hovering, descent and landing are studied in the proposed article. During the computer simulation process, kinematics parameters diagrams were made, aerodynamic coefficients and propellers thrust components at all stages of aircraft take-off were estimated. That numerical data can be used in a preliminary stage of aerodynamic design for the vertical take-off and landing aircraft and electric drones at the determination of control and equalization elements geometric and kinematic parameters.

混合电推进能源管理系统模糊逻辑控制

针对混合电推进能源管理方法开展研究,设计了一种基于模糊逻辑控制的混合电推进能源管理系统。通过设置垂直起降飞行器的功率要求、内燃机-发电机输出功率和储能电池荷电状态的模糊隶属度函数,动态最优分配发电机与储能电池的功率输出,从而提升系统的燃油经济性与飞行器的航程。结合模型设置,对100 kg级的垂直起降转平飞的飞行器能源系统变化进行仿真计算,验证了能源控制算法的可行性。结果表明:基于模糊逻辑控制的能源管理方法,在总时长约为1.2 h的飞行过程中,内燃机约有1 h的时间工作在比油耗最低的区域,从而提升了混合电推进系统的能量利用效率。研究为后续混合电推进系统的能源高效控制与管理提供了设计思路和分析方法。

基于有限时间观测器的VTOL飞行器跟踪控制

针对垂直起降(VTOL)飞行器的轨迹跟踪控制问题,本文提出了一种基于有限时间控制的输出反馈控制方案。采用系统分解技术将原系统解耦成2个子系统,将原系统的输出轨迹跟踪问题转化为2个子系统的镇定问题。对解耦后的系统,利用滑模控制方法设计了一种状态反馈控制律,所设计的控制器能够保证闭环系统有限时间稳定。考虑部分状态不可测量情况下的VTOL飞行器轨迹跟踪控制问题,提出了一个有限时间快速收敛观测器,基于有限时间快速收敛观测器提出了有限时间输出反馈控制律。仿真结果表明,所提出的控制方法具有良好的跟踪性能,能够实现飞行器对给定参考轨迹的快速、准确跟踪。

欠驱动VTOL飞行器的自耦PID控制方法

针对非最小相位欠驱动垂直起降(vertical taking-off and landing, VTOL)飞行器的控制难题,提出了一种自耦PID(auto-coupling proportional-integral-differrential, ACPID)控制理论方法.首先通过坐标变换将VTOL飞行器的质心映射为Huygens振动中心,不仅能实现新系统控制输入解耦,而且也能避免非最小相位VTOL飞行器零动态不稳定的问题;然后对Huygens振动中心分别设计纵横向位置的ACPID控制器,并分别获得VTOL飞行器底部推力和滚转姿态角虚拟指令,进而设计滚转姿态角的ACPID控制器形成滚转力矩,从而实现VTOL飞行器系统的位置跟踪控制;最后通过复频域分析理论证明闭环控制系统的鲁棒稳定性和抗扰动鲁棒性.理论分析和仿真结果都表明了本文方法的有效性,在非最小相位欠驱动控制系统领域具有重要的科学意义和广泛的应用前景.

民航飞联网智慧运行关键技术及典型应用

针对现有航空系统通信方式、管制模式和安全监管已不能满足多类大量航空器全空域运行的需求,研究提出民航飞联网及其运行关键技术。文章首先详细剖析民航飞联网概念,研究梳理飞联网发展背景,然后重点分析飞联网自主间隔、宽带互联、全息感知、通信安全四个关键技术,最后,以电动垂直起降飞行器(eVTOL)低空运行为典型场景,描述飞联网技术在其乘客便捷出行、飞行精准管控、交通智能管理和安全监管与告警方面的应用。